Naval officers on China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, were popular photo subjects for Hong Kong residents enjoying a rare opportunity to sing and dance with them on the second and final day of the warship’s public opening on Sunday.
Visitors queued up to capture on camera the sheer scale of the 70,000-tonne carrier, with its distinctive “ski jump” ramp, fighter jets, likely to be J-15s, and helicopters, and to seize the chance to meet and interact with officers.
“The deck was absolutely buzzing with excitement. There was a massive singalong and you could even dance with the naval officers,” said Dong Xiaoyang, a user of the Chinese social media platform RedNote.
“You got a full, close-up view of both the J-15 and J-15T jets – I heard you can’t even get this close at air shows.
“And the naval officers on board were incredibly cool. They were all happy to take photos with us, which was such a rare opportunity. I seriously made sure to get a picture with almost every one of them.”
Another RedNote user, Da Bonjour, took photos with several crew members and expressed gratitude for their efforts in sweltering temperatures over the past few days.
