Chinese Navy’s hospital ship Peace Ark arrived at the port of Havana, Cuba on Oct 21 with a 5-day friendly visit.
This is the first visit of Chinese Navy’s ship to Cuba.
Peace Ark left Chinese port Zhoushan on Sept 16 with the view to pay friendly visits to Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Costa Rica.
About Peace Ark
Launched in 2007, China is one of a few nations with naval floating hospitals. The Chinese rationale for the ship was to give China a platform to provide a better means to providing quicker humanitarian response to disasters around the world, but others contend it allows China to extend the navy’s blue water capabilities.The single ship of the class has a pennant number 866. The ship is assigned to the East Sea Fleet and based out of Daishandao. The ship has 300 beds, 20 ICUs, 8 operating theatres, and the capacity to accommodate 40 major surgeries a day – about as many as a large hospital in Beijing.The ship is unarmed and painted white with red crosses to conform to the Geneva Convention criteria for a civilian hospital ship.
[mappress] Source: rusnavy, October 28, 2011;