China’s Ministry of Transport has named two cities and two provinces as cruise pilot areas - Tianjin, Shanghai, Fujian and Hainan – which,according to Yang Huaxiong, deputy director of the Water Transport Bureau at the Ministry,will be encouraged to develop their cruise businesses through expanding port services, training and building cruise industry chains.Alan Lam reports.

Under this project, China plans to develop three homeport hubs: the fast growing northern port of Tianjin, which has just extended its cruise season to November for the first time,will serve destinations in Japan, Korea, and eastern Siberia;the country’s premier port of Shanghai will mainly serve itineraries to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau; its Xiamen and Sanya ports will have a focus on Southeast Asia and Taiwan.