About 11,000 tickets to visit two People’s Liberation Army Navy ships will be distributed free of charge to the public starting on Saturday. Community leaders hailed the warships’ arrival as reinforcing the city’s sense of national pride bolstered by the previous port call of the aircraft carrier CSN Shandong.
The PLA Navy training vessel Qi Jiguang and landing ship Yimeng Shan will be docked in Hong Kong on Wednesday — National Day — and Thursday, and will be open to ticket-holding members of the public at Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base, the Ministry of National Defense announced on Thursday.
From 10 am today, members of the public can log in to the PLA Hong Kong Garrison’s official WeChat account, “Xiang Jiang Li Jian”, to complete registration and reserve tickets.
READ MORE: Tickets to visit PLA Navy ships available from Saturday
Tickets will be released in batches three times daily — at 10 am, 3 pm, and 8 pm — on a first-come, first-served basis.
Applicants need to submit personal data, including their names and information on their identification documents, to register, and each applicant can apply for one ticket only. Children aged 11 or under do not require a ticket but must be accompanied by an adult.
The ships will be docked at the Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks on Stonecutters Island and open to the public from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm on both days.
Lau Chi-pang — a historian, lawmaker and associate vice-president of Lingnan University — framed the two warships’ arrival as a vital portal for Hong Kong residents to witness national power firsthand.
Lau said the visit is a clear sign of the central government’s commitment to sharing the country’s developmental and military achievements with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which continues a pattern of engagement coming after a five-day visit by a naval fleet led by the Shandong in July and September’s grand military parade that marked the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
Lau looks to a future in which even more aircraft carrier-led fleets — like the one led by the Fujian aircraft carrier — might berth at Hong Kong’s waterfront.
Wang Chung-wing, a member of the Kwai Tsing District Council, was itching to secure tickets for the visit, while acknowledging a fierce battle for these highly coveted passes.
Wong, whose district nears the Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base, recalls the days that took on an “electric air” during the July visit of the Shandong, describing those unable to obtain boarding tickets as thronging the Tsing Yi Promenade for just a distant glimpse of the vessel.
Having previously managed to board an escorted ship of the Shandong-led fleet, Wang recounted the memorable warmth of the crew’s up-close interactions with Hong Kong’s youth — a scene she hoped would be repeated.
The calling to defend one’s country is a deep-entrenched point of pride for everyone, youngsters, in particular, being no exception, Wang said, adding that many service members in the Navy are in their blossoming youth.
“This direct connection transforms the abstract concept of national defense into something tangible, planting powerful seeds of patriotism in Hong Kong’s younger generation”, she added.
READ MORE: Navy fleet visit ignites national pride in Hong Kong
The two-day stop in Hong Kong is part of the ships’ scheduled far-sea training mission, starting at the end of September.
Commissioned in February 2017, the Qi Jiguang — named after a military general from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and with a full displacement of nearly 10,000 metric tons — is a state-of-the-art training ship equipped with advanced educational facilities, which has previously completed several ocean-going training missions.
The Yimeng Shan, named after a group of mountains in Shandong province, has a displacement of nearly 20,000 tons, and first entered service with the East Sea Fleet in February 2016.
Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com
