China's second homegrown large cruise ship delivered in Shanghai

China

China's second homegrown large cruise ship delivered in Shanghai

2026-11-06 15:08 Last Updated At：17:44

China's second domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Flora City, was delivered to its operator Adora Cruises -- a Chinese-American cruise line -- in Shanghai on Friday, marking the country's entry into a new phase of serial large cruise ship building.

The cruise ship, which features distinctive Chinese-style characteristics, is scheduled to launch its inaugural season from the Nansha International Cruise Home Port in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province in south China.

Adora Flora City was built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Company, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). Construction of the cruise ship began in August 2022.

Compared with China's first domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, the overall construction efficiency improved by 20 percent, according to project figures.

The new ship is larger, with more advanced onboard equipment. Its gross tonnage has increased by 6,400 tons to 141,900 tons, and its total length has increased by 17.4 meters to 341 meters. It has 2,130 guest cabins and can accommodate 5,232 passengers at full capacity.

"Our second homegrown large cruise ship saw a reduction of nearly four million work hours compared to its predecessor. Normally, a civilian vessel takes about one million work hours to build. The reduction in manual labor was substantial, and the work efficiency improved very quickly. For the new large cruise ship, the construction time was shortened by eight months, and the localization rate for interior materials fitting has reached 80 percent," said Chen Jianwei, deputy general manager of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Company.

Large cruise ships are among the most complex giant system engineering projects in the global industrial system, said Chen Gang, on-site chief commander and chief designer of China's domestically built large cruise ship project.

Adora Flora City has as many as 25 million parts components, and drives the development of about 1,500 upstream and downstream supporting suppliers, reflecting the country's comprehensive industrial strength and advanced manufacturing level, he added.

"As far as the research and development side is concerned, we have preliminarily established a cruise research and development system and completed the implementation and verification of key technologies. In terms of the construction side, we have established the design system and standards for our production. In terms of the supply chain side, we have cultivated a supply chain system based on domestic and international dual circulations. We will follow the parallel strategy of manufacturing, designing, and research and development across generations. The forward conceptual design for China's third homegrown large cruise ship has already begun," Chen said.

After delivery, Adora Flora City will conduct trial voyages and carry out various preparatory tasks before its scheduled maiden voyage. It is due to arrive at the Nansha International Cruise Home Port on Nov. 12, with its inaugural season set to begin on Nov. 22.

China sets world record for coldest temperature aboard space station

Chinese scientists have set a new record for the coldest temperature ever achieved by humans, cooling a cloud of rubidium atoms to 9.7 picokelvin, and keeping it stable for observation for seven seconds.

The result, announced by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization on Friday, marks a major step toward absolute zero, the lowest temperature theoretically possible, creating the coldest artificial substance known to date. The work was published on Friday in the journal Science.

The experiment was carried out in the ultra-cold atom physics rack aboard China's space station. The project began feasibility studies in 2011, and its experiment system was launched with the Mengtian module in 2022. It was organized by the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization under the CAS, while completed by Beijing University and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) of the CAS.

They cooled a rubidium atom cloud to an equivalent temperature of 9.7 picokelvin, 14 orders of magnitude below the roughly 300 kelvin room temperature on Earth, and kept it stable for observation for seven seconds. The result broke the previous record of 38 picokelvin, set by a German team in 2021.

"We have mastered the whole technology chain for deep cooling of ultracold atoms, allowing atoms to reach the picokelvin level. This shows that our engineering capability in deep atomic cooling is up to the world advanced level," said Chen Weibiao, Party secretary of SIOM.

On Earth, gravity pulls atoms downward, making it hard to cool them sufficiently. In the microgravity environment of China's space station, atoms could float freely and reach far lower temperatures without strong external confinement. The Chinese research team remotely controlled the space station's equipment from the ground to make the breakthrough, said the CAS center.