The Adora Magic City departs from Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port on Jan 1. [Photo provided to english.pudong.gov.cn]

China's first domestically-made large cruise ship, Adora Magic City, commenced its maiden voyage from Shanghai carrying more than 3,000 passengers onboard on Jan 1.

Departing from Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port at 4:45 pm, passengers from home and abroad started their seven-day and six-night cruise journey that will visit Jeju in South Korea as well as Fukuoka and Nagasaki in Japan.

"When we learned from the news that China's homegrown large cruise ship had started construction in 2019, our family made the decision to take the vessel once it started operation," said Feng Yanxin, one of the first batch guests boarding Adora Magic City on Monday morning.

According to Feng, who planned this trip with her husband and four-year-old son, she took her first cruise trip in 2014. "When I sat in the vessel, I kept wondering when I could take a China-built cruise ship. And now, this dream comes true," Feng said.

Chao Quanying, at the age of 80, has long been preparing for this trip. "I have brought everything that I may need onboard. My niece and I left Changzhou in Jiangsu province at 7 am I cannot wait to start my very first cruise trip on our Chinese cruise ship."

In a bid to ensure the success of the inaugural sailing, a series of preparations, procedure optimizations, and adjustments were made in accordance with the conditions of the two trial voyages before the January 1 journey, according to Zhang Guanchang, an official from Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection's Pujiang border inspection station.

"Taking opportunities that appeared in the cruise market recovery, Adora Magic City has quickly attracted a large number of cruise consumers to experience, which laid a market foundation for its long-term operation and development," said Qiu Ling, chairman and deputy director of the Shanghai International Cruise Business Institute.

According to Qiu, there is still a long way to go for Chinese cruise operators to reach the sophisticated operation and management of their international counterparts.

"We chose to launch the inaugural voyage of Adora Magic City on the first day of 2024 to convey our best wishes to our guests, wishing them a prosperous and happy life in the New Year. We hope it will also usher in a more promising future for the cruise business in China," said Chen Ranfeng, CEO of Adora Cruises.

"Together with our crew family members from around 30 countries, we will try our best in every aspect of product and service to create magnificent cruise experiences for our guests," Chen said.

Measuring 323.6 meters in length, the 135,500-gross-tonnage jumbo ship can accommodate a maximum of 5,246 guests with its 2,125 guest rooms. Equipped with a living and entertainment public area of 40,000 square meters, the vessel is known as the modern city on the sea.