China's 2nd homegrown large cruise ship enters shipyard for final assembly

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 1, 2024 shows the large domestic cruise ship "Adora Magic City" at the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

SHANGHAI, April 20 (Xinhua) -- China's second domestically-built large cruise ship entered a shipyard in Shanghai on Saturday for final assembly.

This signifies that China has developed the capability to engage in bulk production of cruise ships, said Chen Jianwei, director of the cruise ship project of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited.

He added that the cruise ship is expected to leave the dock by March 2026, and be delivered to the customer by the end of 2026.

In comparison to the country's first domestically-built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, the new ship boasts a larger size, with a total tonnage of 141,900 tonnes, a length of 341 meters, and a width of 37.2 meters, and features 2,144 cabins.

The construction of the cruise ships has brought together 500 suppliers from around the world, establishing a robust cruise supply chain, thus, laying a solid foundation for the mass production of large cruise ships, according to Chen Gang, general manager of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

In addition to large cruise ship, the company has also accelerated the research and development of ultra-large as well as medium and small cruise ships.