Hong Kong: China’s first domestically-built aircraft carrier arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday as part of a drive to drum up patriotism, days after the former British colony marked the 28th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.
The Shandong entered the city’s waters alongside another vessel from its battle group in the early morning hours. According to state media, two destroyers
and a frigate had accompanied the aircraft carrier into Hong Kong. The warships will be open for public visits this weekend.
All 10,000 available tickets for visits have already been claimed by eager residents. Two thousand of them were for seeing the Shandong, while the others were for one of the destroyers and the frigate, local media reported.
The arrival of the carrier comes days after the Asian financial hub marked 28 years since it was turned over to China after more than a century of British colonial rule.
The ship is China’s second aircraft carrier and first to have been fully self-built. It is smaller than US carriers, carrying 24 Shenyang J-10 fighters and weighing in at 70,000 tons fully loaded.