Xiamen home port welcomes two cruise ships

Two large liners drop anchor at the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port in East China's Fujian province on Oct 20. [Photo/xmnn.cn]

Two large liners docked together at the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port in East China's Fujian province on Oct 20, contributing to a particularly busy day for the port, with passenger volume exceeding 10,000.

The two cruise ships are Diamond Princess, one of the 15 most luxurious liners in the world, and Costa Atlantica from the largest cruise ship company in Europe, Costa Crociere.

The Diamond Princess, sailing from Kagoshima, Japan, carried more than 2,700 foreign passengers to the Chinese city to admire its beautiful scenery as well as Gulangyu, a small island off the city's coast that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The other liner headed for Manila, capital of the Philippines, from Xiamen port, its first port of departure, with more than 2,600 tourists from around China on board.

A spokesman for the Xiamen International Cruise Home Port said that in the first three quarters of this year, the Xiamen port has accommodated more than 218,700 passengers, up by 90.8 percent year-on-year and it is expected to set a new passenger throughput record of 300,000 people by the end of this year.