-- Celebrating 5th China Navigation Day

July 11th of this year is the 5th China Navigation Day. The subject of this year's Navigation Day is to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the P.R.C. and meet the new challenges for navigation.

China Navigation Day is the only national marine culture day and was approved by the State Council in the year 2005, when the whole nation held grand ceremonies to mark the 600th anniversary for Zheng He¡¯s voyages to the west. As a national legal marine culture activity which is led by the government and participated in by the whole nation¡ªChina Navigation Day takes on the heavy responsibility of ¡¡ãinheriting marine civilization, promoting marine culture, updating marine views and building a great maritime power¡¡À. It involves relevant industries including navigation, ocean, shipbuilding, fishery and navy and is also the cultural activity to publicize the nautical and marine knowledge to the whole nation, enhance and cultivate the spirit of Chinese nation and promote social harmony. Dalian becomes the host city for the Celebration of 2009 China Navigation Day, which¡¯s the organizing committee for China Navigation Day¡¯s and the national navigation circle¡¯s approval and trust in regard to Dalian¡¯s urban construction, port and channel development, marine culture deposits and organizing capacity of large-scale activities.

Dalian lies in the south of Liaodong Peninsula and borders Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Russia¡¯s Far East Area. Dalian¡¯s also an important connection point of Eurasia Land Bridge. The developing history of Dalian is just a maritime history. There are many Beiqiu Sites and burial grounds of Han Dynasty scattered in Dalian, which record rich information of ancient marine cultures. A great number of unearthed fossils, stoneware and bone tools suggest that there were Chinese ancestors living in Dalian coastal area and making a living by sea 17,000 years ago. Dalian is the main base of North Marine Navy, where many modern nautical equipments including¡§¡±Far East¡¯s Largest Shipyard¡§•were left and are still in use until today. The cradle for Chinese navy officers-- Dalian Naval Vessel Academy and the world famous senior marine institution of higher learning--Dalian Maritime University are located in Dalian. There is also many a well-known oceanographer, marine author, marine painter and swimmer here. Besides, Dalian boasts a special Polo Aquarium, Museum of Natural History, Museum of Seashells, Museum of Snake Island, Oceanic Theme Paradise, and Seaside Cultural Theme Park. Since China Navigation Day activities were launched 5 years ago, Dalian has successfully held ¡¡ãDalian Maritime Culture Week¡¡À, National Seamanship Contest of Maritime Academies, Lingfeng Sailing Team¡¯s cross over Bo Hai Sea Gulf, knowledge contest for commemorating the 600th anniversary for Zheng He¡¯s voyages to the west, which all exert positive influence both abroad and at home.

In 2003, after the central government put forward the proposal of building Dalian into an important international shipping center of Northeast Asia in the strategy of rejuvenating the old industrial base of Northeast China, Dalian fully promoted the construction of the international shipping center, which greatly improved the core competitiveness of the port. For the past 6 years, Dalian has totally invested 37.9 billion RMB in port construction and built the world¡¯s first-class sea terminals such as the 300,000-tonnage ore terminal, the 300,000-tonnage crude oil tanker terminal, the logistics terminal of 1,000,000 automobiles and Dayao Bay Container Terminal. The 500,000-tonnage crude oil tanker terminal is already under construction. Dalian Port has established trade contacts with over 300 ports of more than 160 countries and regions of the world. It undertakes Northeast China¡¯s most tasks of marine cargo and foreign trade container transportation. Dalian Dayao Bay Free Trade Zone officially starts operation, which further strengthens Dalian¡¯s leading position and comprehensive capacity of the opening up, and creates new competitiveness for expanding the opening up of Northeast China. Program for Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Development approved by the State Council further improves the core position and leading role of Dalian, promotes the construction of Dalian International Shipping Center of Northeast Asia and lays the solid foundation for Liaoning Economic Zone¡¯s transformation into a new economic growth of national coastal areas. 

The Celebration of 2009 China Navigation Day is to be held in Dalian today. Grasping the great opportunity of organizing the celebration, Dalian will make in-depth research into the cultural connotation of Navigation Day, enrich its activity forms and organize various education and propaganda activities to widely publicize and widespread nautical knowledge. Exploiting and making the best use of Dalian¡¯s varied superior resources, Dalian takes the advantages of nautical and marine culture resources as well as marine education resources to further strengthen the marine consciousness of all the citizens of Dalian. Dalian will make its contribution to extending China Navigation Day¡¯s influence both abroad and at home and developing Chinese navigation, and ¡¡ãset sail¡¡À for improving the soft power construction of the important International Shipping Center of Northeast Asia and promoting the rapid development of Liaoning Economic Zone.

2009 China Navigation Day. Welcome to Dalian!