The Type 679 training ship with

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

Daxin, or 大兴 in Chinese meaning Great Prosper, is a Chinese

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...

developed for the

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...

(PLAN). The ship is more commonly known as ''Zheng He'' , after the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

admiral of the same name. ''Zheng He'' is the first purpose-built training ship indigenously developed by China. Designed by the 708th Institute of

China State Shipbuilding Corporation The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is a Chinese shipbuilding conglomerate. Description CSSC is one of the top 10 defence groups in China. It consists of various shipyards, equipment manufacturers, research institutes and shipb ...

(CSSC), commonly known as China Shipbuilding and Oceanic Engineering Design Academy (中国船舶及海洋工程设计研究), the ship was built by Qiuxing (求新) Shipyard in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, a division of

Jiangnan Shipyard Jiangnan Shipyard () is a historic shipyard in Shanghai, China. The shipyard has been state-owned since its founding in 1865 and is now operated as Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. Before 2009, the company was south of central Shanghai at ...

. The ship is designed to be crewed by 170 sailors and 30 instructors assigned to the ship. The ship has a large hospital on board to accommodate cadet classes. She was originally designed to house 108 cadets in addition to the crew and instructors. When the ship first entered service in 1987, she was the first ship in the PLAN to incorporate entertainment rooms (there are two such rooms). The vessel supports training in over forty subjects. In April 1989, Zheng He became the first ship in the PLAN to visit the United States when she visited Hawaii. Between April 16 and September 21, 2012, Zheng He conducted her first

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circ ...

of the globe, crossing three oceans, visiting 11 countries, and covering more than 30,000 nautical miles over the course of a 159-day voyage. File:Zheng_He_Pearl_Harbor.jpg, ''Zheng He'' at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. File:PLA Navy Ships Zhenghe and Weifang off Visakhapatnam, India in May 2014.jpg, ''Zheng He'' during a visit to India in May 2014.

References

{{Ship classes of the Chinese Navy, state=uncollapsed People's Liberation Army Navy Auxiliary ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy Training ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy Training ships Ships built in China 1986 ships Dalian zh:郑和号训练舰