Chinese Navy Ship Group Winds up Tour of Tanzania

Chinese Navy Ships End Its Visit to Tanzania

The navy ship group of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) ended its two-day maiden goodwill visit to Tanzania on Sunday morning, leaving for Simonstown port of Cape Town of South Africa, the last leg of its three-nation intercontinental voyage.

Tanzanian Navy Commander Rear Admiral (RADM) Ligate Sande, who got on board to say goodbye to Commander of the Chinese Navy ship group RADM Huang Jiang, extended his gratitude to the ship group for making Tanzania the first stop of its historic maiden tour of Africa, and expressed the hope that Chinese navy men would visit the eastern African country again.

Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Wang Yongqiu and hundreds of Chinese people working here gathered at the Dar es Salaam harbor to wave a farewell to the soldiers from their motherland.

On Saturday, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa met Huang at the State House, speaking highly of the friendship and good cooperation between the two countries for decades. He expressed the hope for further strengthening bilateral exchanges.

The Chinese ship group, which berthed at the Dar es Salaam harbor on Friday morning, consists of China's newest guided-missile destroyer christened Shenzhen, and China's largest assorted supply ship Nancang. Destroyer Shenzhen was open to Tanzanian people for visit for two days.

Leaving its base in Zhanjiang in southern China on July 5, Chinese warships first paid a four-day visit to Malaysia from July 11 to 14.

According to Huang, the tour is aimed at further promoting the mutual understanding and friendship between the armed forces and the peoples of China and the three countries.

Since 1980s, Chinese navy has dispatched 13 ship groups to visit a total of 17 countries in five continents in the world.