Photos : The Minsk World

Old planes are only for display, including some MiG-23s and Q-5s. Not exactly sure how China procured those MiG-23s, but I bet they were the ones traded from Egypt in the seventies.

If Minskworld defaulted, it only means it will be owned by a state owned bank, so the government will have the final say about its fate. If the country still has the slightest shred of having any interest in a carrier at all in the future, even for study or practice, then it may survive. If not, then indeed the country has no interest with carriers at all other than amusement or scrap metal.

Maybe the Kiev theme park will do better. The company behind it have been looking for all sorts of foreign investors. Varyag is still sitting there in Dalian gathering rust.

How do we save her from the scrap heap?, more to the point, what about those Yaks??? Couple she be purchased and also the Yaks and then have a working Aircraft carrier yet again? Not only in China, but anyone?

And what’s this about forty two fighter planes? Who do they think they are kidding? The most I ever saw on this or any other of the typw was 12 and that included two of them being trainers, forty two, pahh silly chinese don’t know what they are talking about! she could only hold 24 aircraft all up, and that included the helo compliment.

Terran: Can’t you honestly be sure about that?

I suppose you can’t be 100% sure, but I would be exetremely surprised. If they were going to do something with her I think it would have to be along the lines of the Admiral Gorshkov (her half-sister) refit. This ship was launched in 1975 and has been inoperable since 1989 though and what is her condition? How many years of service could they hope to get out of her and would she be a valuable addition to the PLAN? I doubt it would be a very good investment.

That does not sound like the PLA owns the Minsk.

Hardly. I heard it does better than the Oceanworld in the same city.

I read otherwise:

Dive the Minsk? Soviet-era 902-ft aircraft carrier for sale
Powered by CYBER DIVER News Network

by PAMELA PUN

End of the road for the 42,000 tonne relic of the Cold War or will the former flagship of the Soviet fleet live on as one of the world’s premier scuba diving attractions?

SHENZHEN, China (7 Dec 2004) — The scrapyard may be beckoning for the Minsk, a mothballed Soviet-era aircraft carrier whose previous date with the breaker’s yard was put off by a detour to a Shenzhen theme park.

Minsk Aircraft Carrier World, one of the hottest tourist attractions in Shenzhen, is seeking a ”white knight” to rescue it from bankruptcy after the financial shipwreck of its parent, D’Long International Strategic Investment.

Shenzhen officials have actively enlisted in the hunt for new investors, foreign or domestic, hoping the Minsk will cheat death again to occupy a place of honour in the the entertainment and tourism hub they plan to develop along the eastern shore of the Special Economic Zone.

Minsk World is reported to have defaulted on a 200 million yuan (HK$187.9 million) loan from China Construction Bank (CCB), one of the big four state-owned lenders. Since the Guangzhou Maritime Court froze its assets, it has been under the trusteeship of China Huarong Asset Management.

The chance to clamber over one of the world’s most formidable warships has attracted more than five million visitors and generated 450 million yuan in revenue since the theme park opened in September 2000.

Minsk World ranks among Shenzhen’s top four attractions, averaging 2,000 visitors on weekdays and as many as 5,000 per day at the weekend. The recent National Day holiday was a bonanza, with 110,000 visitors pushing through the turnstiles.

The admission fee is 110 yuan.

The 42,000-tonne, 275-metre-long carrier once carried 42 fighter planes as the flagship of the former Soviet Union’s Pacific Fleet. After the Soviet Union dissolved, Russia was unable to manage the upkeep, and the carrier was decommissioned in 1994. In 1998, it was purchased by an unidentified Chinese businessman after its weaponry was stripped off in South Korea.

It then passed to the theme park’s owner, D’Long Group, which is based in the northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Brothers Tang Wanxin and Tang Wanli, who set up the company, were seen as paragons of the new entrepreneur class until early this year, when their complex funding mechanism based on dubious stock transactions ground to a halt.

The park’s managers are playing down the crisis. A spokesman said management hoped to find new investors before March, when a court will hear CCB’s request to wind up the company.

http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i041207a/i041207a.html

Hardly. I heard it does better than the Oceanworld in the same city.

It seems to do well enough that the Chinese are planning a sequel to it in Tianjin, using the Kiev carrier, which is currently moored in that city.

I’m sure Ja may be picking his jaw from the floor if he just knew the Kiev is also moored in China, not to mention the Varyag is still nearby in Dalian.

This sounds sinister. The chinese have two of them? Minsk and Kiev? Think about it, the PLAN could have purchised these ships, claiming they’re Theme Parks, Hotels etc, and, when they get their hands on them, do to them, what the Indian Navy is doing to the Gorshkov. That is eleminate the forward weapons array and replace it with a ski-jump, or maybe even cats. Enlarge the lifts, update the electronics fit and of course, modify the angled deck with mirror sights, arrestor wires and markings suitable for CTOL aircraft. If they own the Novorossiysk as well they could have a 3 carrier navy!

Crob: mate you know me too well, hahahahahaha. It’s interesting that the Russians have not sold any Yak 36’s to anyone for display purposes!

The theme park is already bankrupt.

Hardly. I heard it does better than the Oceanworld in the same city.

It seems to do well enough that the Chinese are planning a sequel to it in Tianjin, using the Kiev carrier, which is currently moored in that city.

I’m sure Ja may be picking his jaw from the floor if he just knew the Kiev is also moored in China, not to mention the Varyag is still nearby in Dalian.

Terran: Can’t you honestly be sure about that?

Do we all really believe that she is going to stay a theme park?

That is difficult to say, but what it won’t become again is an operational carrier.

And that’s another thing, why is it so darn hard to get a pic of the elevator on this class???

The theme park is already bankrupt.

They shall convert it to a floating hotel/casino(If China permits it).Gurantee earn big bucks!!! 😀

The theme park is already bankrupt.

When did she go to China?
Do we all really believe that she is going to stay a theme park?
The Chinese are very canny and I suspect that she may have had a good inspection before being proceded to theme park status!

All the way to the right, behind the Fantan’s, you can see an aircraft tail which is very distinctly Mig23/27. Also, there appears to be another one in the forward section of the hangar.

Yes but the way the picture it depict,Q-5 seems to be the main focus while Mig-23 is seems to so distanca away that it is out of the picture and not talking abt it.

I think he make a mistake or put the wrong picture! That plane definitely is not Mig-23 but Q-5 Fantan.

All the way to the right, behind the Fantan’s, you can see an aircraft tail which is very distinctly Mig23/27. Also, there appears to be another one in the forward section of the hangar.

Yes it is understood that Mig-23’s could not fly the Minsk. This IS a theme-park after all.

I think he make a mistake or put the wrong picture! That plane definitely is not Mig-23 but Q-5 Fantan.