Shipbuilding Industry Company, a subsidiary of CSSC has officially started the construction of "Xiamen", which will be the first cruise ship built in China.
The project was announced last year by Shu Shan Hai Group in Beijing, the maxi-tourism group that wants to transform the city of Xiamen - former industrial area opposite the island of Taiwan - in the 'Las Vegas cruise destination." The project is called Southeast China International Shipping Center, a package of $ 2.3 billion over the ship that includes hotels, holiday centers-and of course the cruise terminal. With this ambitious project - which will be supported by a "cruise plan" currently under study at the National Administration of Tourism - the Chinese want to show that it can build not only cargo and passenger ships.
Compared to the announcements of September last year, the path for the realization of "Xiamen" is emerging with more precision. The construction costs reported by Cruise Examiner, are more credible from an initial 234.5 million dollars has gone to about 490 million, for a vessel of about 100 000 tons for 2,000 passengers. Greatly accelerate the delivery time: if at first there was talk in 2018, now from Shan Hai Shu announce that the unit will be ready by 2014.
The Chinese will not do it alone. Although the ship has its specificities - the style in it draw the Chinese architecture of the eight restaurants and of course the cruise ship will have Western style.
RCCL engineers will design the project and the ship will follow the stages of construction on site. The designer who became famous with Cunard "Queen Mary 2" Stephen Payne is also involved in this project,. Payne, through a note in his study, has already indicated that the ship has internal "five stars". Above all details: whether the measures should remain those announced (ship 100 thousand tons, 2,000 passengers) the configuration of the unit will be entirely new, as of this size usually ships carrying 1,000
passengers more. Payne has also participated in the construction of many Carnival ships.
Behind the project is the maxi-Deltamarin Finnish study, which among the various works for RCCL has
designed the "Oasis of the Seas" and her twin. Today Finns are following the CSC Jinling shipyard, where they're supervising the implementation of the "Titanic 2".
Xiamen is the fourth port of call in China regularly visited by RCCL ships, Azamara Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Regent Seven Seass and Silversea.
