QINGDAO, May 13 -- The retired naval comprehensive supply ship Hongzehu (Hull 881) was officially removed from the PLA Navy and handed over to the Memorial Hall for the Birthplace of PLA Navy in Taizhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province on May 12, 2020. It will be the permanent collection there and open to the public.

At around 10 a.m., the handover ceremony was conducted by a naval combat support flotilla under the PLA Northern Theatre Command at a military port in Qingdao. The ship's hull number 881 has been covered with paint.

For the past 40 years, the Ship Hongzehu remained good performance under the careful maintenance of generation after generation of crew members. Chief Master Sergeant Zhu Renbing, who has been on the battleship for 24 years, completed the last unmooring.

The Ship Hongzehu, renowned as China's number one supply ship, is one of the first-generation comprehensive supply ships independently designed and built by China. It was launched on September 6, 1979, and got commissioned in 1980. It has sailed over 5 continents, 3 oceans, and 29 ports in 26 countries, with a total voyage of more than 330,000 nautical miles, successively carried out more than a thousand major combat training missions, and set 16 records for the PLA Navy fleet including the first voyage around the world and the first-time passing through the Panama Canal.