Navy chiefs' wives listen to the Peace Ark's crew introduce the ship in Qingdao on April 22 (PAN XIAOQIAO)

Wives of foreign navy chiefs attending the 14th annual conference of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Qingdao paid a visit to Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship Peace Ark on the afternoon of April 22. Staff on the ship showed the ladies around the ship, briefing them on basic information about the hospital ship's equipment and the humanitarian relief missions she had been involved in so far.

Inviting the family members of navy chiefs during similar international conferences to visit hospital and medical ships or similar facilities is a common practice in the navies of all countries.

Many of them showed particular interest in traditional Chinese medicine items like acupuncture and cupping. The ship supports remote medical consultation through satellites with medical experts on land. Sarah Ab Ghafar, wife of Malaysian Royal Navy Commander Aziz Jaafar, said in front of the video to medical experts in the PLA Navy General Hospital in Beijing, that she was impressed with advanced facilities and well-developed treatment systems. She hoped that Malaysia could also have such a ship. Particularly, on behalf of the visiting ladies, she thanked PLA Navy's Peace Ark for all the humanitarian aid and relief missions it had conducted around the world in recent years.

With a full load displacement of 14,000-tonnage, Peace Ark possesses 300 beds for patients and eight operation rooms. The ship is equipped with CT scanners, DR-colored ultrasound, breathing machines and high-pressure sterilization machines among other equipment. Making its debut in 2009, on the 60th founding anniversary of the PLA Navy, the ship is designed to provide medical treatment to the wounded on the sea during wartime and offer medical service to the PLA troops stationed in remote islets in peacetime.

According to Zhang Ronghua, Captain of Peace Ark, in recent years, aside from actively getting involved in multilateral maritime exercises on the sea, the hospital ship is also busy with medical service missions for ordinary people in various parts of the world. One such example would be the emergency operation she embarked on after Typhoon Haiyan hit the central part of the Philippines in November 2013.

(Reporting from Qingdao)