Warship visiting day held during RIMPAC 2014 multinational naval exercise

The picture shows local overseas Chinese who are visiting the guided missile destroyer "Haikou" of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) berthed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, display the national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and pose for a family group photo on July 5, 2014, local time. (Chinamil.com.cn/Yu Lin)

The RIMPAC 2014 multinational naval exercise held a warship visiting day and opened the 36 warships from the 14 participating countries to the officers and men from all the participating countries as well as local people and media from various countries on June 5, 2014, local time.

The guided missile destroyer "Haikou" and the hospital ship "Peace Ark" of the PLAN caught much attention, attracting 1,000-plus people to board and visit.

Liao Hanchen, the 74-year-old Chinese American, and his family, totaling nine, visited the "Haikou" warship at 9:00 am, local time. As soon as Liao Hanchen and his family walked onto the gangway, they raised the national flag of the People's Republic of China and took a precious family group photo.

Liao Hanchen told the reporter that: "My hometown is in Shantou of South China's Guangdong province. I emigrated to the US from Shanghai. Such a strong and mighty warship really makes me feel extremely excited".

Having learned on the Internet the news of the Chinese warships participating in the RIMPAC multinational naval exercise, Cheng Nian, a Chinese overseas student, came to visit the warships together with his classmates.

People boarding to visit the Chinese "Peace Ark" hospital ship were impressed by the scientific design of the overall body of the ship and the complete medical facilities.

Renofield Keller from the Burke-class guided missile destroyer O'kane of the US Navy said that "The visit on the hospital ship today is fantastic. It's like walking into a hospital on land". He's looking forward to the Chinese warships' excellent performance in the exercise.

It is learned that after the warship visiting day, the participating warships of all the countries will successively leave Pearl Harbor and shift to the maritime implementation phase of the exercise.