Shekou Sea World
Thursday, 12th October 2006 by Alex Turnbull
Back in 1962 France launched a ship named Ancerville, which was purchased by the People's Republic of China in 1973 and renamed Minghua. 10 years later the ship was permanently berthed at Shekou, Shenzhen, where she was refurbished and rebranded - this time as the hotel and entertainment complex, "Shekou Sea World".
Since the Minghua was berthed at Sea World Plaza, the water which originally surrounded her has been reclaimed to allow construction of the golf course you can see here. The land reclamation continued southward, and today the coastline has been moved several hundred metres, leaving the Minghua completely landlocked.
Weirdly, this isn't the only landlocked entertainment ship in China - there's another one in Hong Kong. Are there any other countries that have converted a ship into a shopping centre?
Here's a history of the ship which includes some good low-level shots.
Thanks to Nrupesh Soni.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
they don’t get any more landlocked than this:
View Placemark
It’s the USS South Dakota, permanently “moored” in Sioux Falls, SD.
see http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/SDSIObattleship.html for more details….
Its not landlocked, but this boat in Zhenjiang, Southern China is a local meeting place with eateries etc.
Ahem. This is the link. :-S
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=21.216485,110.42028&z=18
Try the RMS Queen Mary https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=33.753291,-118.189845&z=18
The USS Albacore is landlocked in Portsmouth, NH where it was built, and is used for tourism. It’s pretty small, but it’s apparently the most advanced pre-atomic sub built. Here’s the link. And if you want more info, here’s the website.
I spent my honeymoon on the Minghua on a South Pacific cruise from Sydney in December 1980. From memory, there was only about 150 passengers on board. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the Chinese crew.
The Minghua is now surrounded by land, after being out of use for many years it has recently been refurbished into eateries and has shops underneath it. I used to live in the apartments that look over it which you can see are being built in this picture.
If you look closely at the sat-photo, you’ll see a golf driving range along its port side. While ther on business, I actually got a chance to hit buckets for a few hours there and shank a few onto the deck “Ouch!” It’s a great place to see and I have enjoyed my visit(s) there for business. Also check out the Ming Hua Convetnion Center Hotel- Nice place with an indoor bowling alley!