PLA Navy 70th Anniversary: Qingdao port prepares to welcome foreign ships

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02:45

The Chinese city of Qingdao is welcoming foreign sailors, as it prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China's navy. Our reporter Wu Guoxiu has more.

Always ready to pilot a ship. Bai Dong is one of the 38 pilots assigned to welcome the ships of foreign navies for this year's celebrations. This boat takes him to the guests.

BAI DONG, FIRST-CLASS PILOT QINGDAO PORT "We board foreign ships to exercise of national sovereignty. We take over from the captain to dock the ships in the right place. We are the first Chinese to board foreign ships when they arrive in China."

Bai says that compared with commercial cargos, navy ships' captains are more cautious. So he needs to strike up a good conversation and win their trust.

BAI DONG, FIRST-CLASS PILOT QINGDAO PORT "'Good morning pilot, good morning captain.' We begin our conversation like this, then I'll tell the captain when to use a tugboat, where to dock and which mooring rope to wear first."

The port has arranged over 20 tug boats to help the vessels dock. Captain Zhou tugged the first comer, Singapore's Stalwart frigate on Saturday. He says it needs much more care than simply tugging a cargo.

ZHOU XUELIANG, TUGBOAT CAPTAIN QINGDAO PORT "Navy vessels are much lighter. We need to be very gentle, neither too fast or too slow, in order not to damage them."

The tug ship is even covered to avoid friction, something they never do for cargo ships. The commercial port is having one of its four areas used for this event.

LI FENGLI, CHAIRMAN OF BOARD QINGDAO PORT "All commercial ships are being redirected. So I don't think our port operations will be seriously affected."

But aside from technical and logistic support, the port has also undergone some maintenance work.

WU GUOXIU QINGDAO "About 20 foreign navy ships will attend the fleet inspection. So far, only one of them has arrived and the rest are supposed to arrive on Sunday. It'll be a busy day for Qingdao Port, but they say they're well prepared. Wu Guoxiu, CGTN, QINGDAO."