An array of models representing China's domestically developed cutting-edge products, technologies and solutions in the field of marine equipment are on display at the World Marine Equipment Conference 2023 in Fuzhou, the capital city of east China's Fujian Province, illustrating the country's rapid development in the industry over the past decade.

Among them is a model of the Shenhai-1 (Deep Sea No. 1), the world's first 100,000-tonne-level semi-submersible deep-sea gas platform independently developed and built by China.

It weighs more than 5,000 tonnes, has a height of 120 meters with a maximum displacement of 110,000 tonnes, and can operate at a water depth of more than 1,500 meters.

Located in the South China Sea, the mega platform, with an annual production capacity of 3 billion cubic meters, delivers natural gas to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area via an offshore pipeline network and can meet a quarter of the gas demand for the area.

It began operations in June 2021, and its recent remote control upgrade marks a significant milestone in China's efforts to expand its offshore energy production capabilities.

Large cruise ships, together with large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers and aircraft carriers, are known as "the three pearls of the crown" in the shipbuilding industry.

A model of China's first domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, is also on display.

Dubbed China's "mobile maritime city," it features dozens of function areas to provide catering, entertainment, leisure and accommodation services for passengers, as well as more than 2,000 different types of cabins.

The manufacturing of the vessel is among the most intricate and complicated. The cruise vessel consists of about 25 million parts, roughly 10 times that of a large plane.

It completed its final trial voyage in September and is expected to be delivered by the end of 2023.

China's homegrown polar icebreaker Xuelong-2 (Snow Dragon-2), which just concluded the country's latest Arctic Ocean scientific expedition, is the world's first research ship equipped with two-way icebreaking capabilities.

It can sail more than 37,000 kilometers in a single voyage with a top speed of 15 knots (or 27.8 km) per hour and break through 1.5 meter-thick ice, thanks to its advanced icebreaking technology.

The icebreaker has become the first Chinese vessel ever to reach the North Pole, which has helped to fill the gap in the country's database about the region.

Green energy featured
Green and low carbon has become one of the keywords at the exhibition, as models of equipment featuring alternative energies such as LNG, hydrogen, nuclear and wind are scattered at the exhibition.

China's first 2,000-tonne-class offshore wind farm installation vessel, dubbed Baihetan, has been operating in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province since September 2022.

The 126-meter-long, 50-meter-wide vessel, with a displacement of 37,000 tonnes, has the world's strongest lifting load of 2,000 tonnes and integrates functions, such as transport, self-elevation, self-propulsion, lifting and dynamic positioning.

Its propelling system has an all-electric, fully-revolving steering oar that makes the ship environmentally friendly.

Three Gorges hydrogen ship No.1, the country's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered ship, uses homegrown hydrogen fuel cells and a lithium battery system that directly converts the chemical energy of hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy for the whole ship, realizing zero pollution emissions throughout the whole process.

Compared to ships powered by traditional fossil fuel, the use of hydrogen is expected to replace 103.16 tonnes of oil every year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 343.67 tonnes.

The ship completed its maiden voyage in Yichang City, central China's Hubei Province on Wednesday.

It is expected that by 2035, China's intelligent shipping technology and industrialization will reach an international leading level and form a high-quality intelligent shipping system by 2050, with an intelligent shipping service network covering the whole world, He Jianzhong, chairman of China Institute of Navigation, said at the conference.

He called for the promotion of the use of clean energy and the development of green power technologies and encouraged the deep integration of digital technologies with the shipping industry to make the industry more intelligent.