Superstar Virgo, one of the largest luxury liners in the Star Cruises fleet that measures 76,800 gross tons with 935 guest rooms able to accommodate 1,870 passengers, has received over 700 bookings for its planned maiden cruise via east China’s Xiamen City on May 8.

It is the first luxury liner to take tourists from China’s mainland directly to international waters. Before this, mainland tourists who want to take ocean-going cruises have to go to luxury cruise terminals in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Making its first call at Xiamen on the eastern coast of Fujian province on April 11 with over 1,600 overseas tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Singapore and Australia, Superstar Virgo will altogether make 25 regular calls at Xiamen at 1 p.m every Thursday and return to Hong Kong at 10 p.m on the same day till October.

Wu Mingfa, marketing manager of Star Cruises, said that Xiamen is an ideal port for international luxury liners to tap the huge market potential across China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions as well as Taiwan.

The World Cruise Shipping Industry predicts the number of cruise passengers in Asia will rise 40% from 1.07 million in 2005 to 1.5 million in 2010, which is made possible in part by Asia’s growing affluence and improved flight options to regional port cities.

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Powered by the booming economy and high stock investment returns, the net profit of publicly traded Chinese firms soared 49.7% on average in 2007.

According to the Shanghai Securities News, net profit of the 1,574 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges totaled 949.7 billion yuan ($136 billion) last year. Their revenue climbed 25% to 9.45 trillion yuan, taking up 38.3% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and earnings per share grew 39.7% to a record high of 0.42 yuan.

China’s GDP witnessed the fifth straight year of double digit growth of 11.9% last year. In the mean time, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index nearly doubled.

In spite of such negative factors as slower export growth, tightening monetary policies and the worst winter in more than five decades, Li Feng, a Galaxy Securities analyst, foresees a no lower than 30% growth in the first quarter corporate profits of listed firms.

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China, economy, investment, listed firm, stock

Due to strong domestic demands, China’s motor vehicle imports soared sharply in the first two months of this year.

From January to February, China imported 62,000 motor vehicles for $2.26 billion, up 82.6% and 93.4% respectively compared with the same period of last year. The growth rates were respectively 63.9 percentage points and 80.8 percentage points higher. In February alone, the imports were 33,000 vehicles, up 130%, the highest growth rate since January 2007.

Foreign-funded companies took up 67.4%, or 42,000 vehicles, of the country’s total imports in the first two months. And wholly-owned foreign firms imported 35,000 vehicles, up 96.5%.

Off-road vehicles made up for 50 percent, or 31,000 units, of the total imports, up 140 percent, while cars accounted for 39.6%, or 25,000 units, up 45.6 %.

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China, import, motor vehicle