China to build top-class superyacht port in Tianjin

by Xinhua News Agency on 14 Oct 2010 China plans to build a top-class yacht port in the northern city of Tianjin by the year-end, which will allow the country's super-rich to dock their luxury vessels at a port near the capital Beijing, local officials declared on Wednesday.

The port will cover an area of 900,000 square meters in Tianjin's booming Binhai district and will have 750 berths to accommodate 300 ft luxury superyachts, Yang Shihao, a deputy head of Binhai district, said at a tourism festival on Wednesday.

Five-star hotels, commercial streets, along with yacht manufacturing and repair bases, will also be set up in the port area.
Yang said the project would cost 9 billion yuan (about 1.35 billion U.S.dollars). Only people with an annual income of over RMB200,000 (USD30,000) will be allowed to sign up for membership to the yacht club to rent a luxury vessel, while members who intend to buy a yacht should have an annual income of over RMB2 million (USD300,000), officials said.
China has seen a fast-expanding middle class in recent years. The latest Hurun Report ‘Rich List’, says the country now has 1,363 billionaires; 97 of them boast personal wealth of over RMB10 billion.

'The time is actually perfect in China for the yacht industry to take off,' said David Brightling, General Manager of the yacht club of HK-based Rainbow Land Holdings Ltd., one of the sponsors of Dongjiang yacht port.

'I think one of the things we can do is to train young people to drive any kind of boat and let them have more fun,' Brightling added.