New tourist liner starts sailing among Wanshan islands

Sightseers embarked from Xiangzhou Port on the speedy island-hopping liner Xin Hai Zhu (New Sea Pearl) on its maiden voyage to the Wanshan Archipelago on Sept 30.

Designed by Dutch Coco Yachts and manufactured by Zhuhai Plenty Shipbuilding Industry Co, the liner boasts an unparalleled passenger capacity of 356 seats. It can reach up to 30 knots (56 km or 35 miles) per hour, the fastest among the screw-propeller ships of Zhuhai Jiuzhou Holdings Group.

The company currently operates 13 island-hopping vessels able to accommodate 3,300 passengers in all. In addition to upgrades since 2018, Jiuzhou Holdings has scheduled 30 sailings daily during slack seasons and 38 during peak periods.

Next October, it will launch a Scenario Cruise that integrates the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge with tourism resources of the Wanshan Archipelago.