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Hainan welcomes first submarine cable

By Huang yiming, Zhang Zhongbao and Han Haiguang (China Daily Hainan Bureau)
Updated: 2009-03-20 11:21

The first submarine cable of Hainan Power Corporation landed at the island province on Tuesday afternoon after a six-day travel on the sea.

An engine boat pulls the cable under the sea out in Hainan on Tuesday. The first submarine cable connecting Hainan and the mainland was laid to provide power to the island. [China Daily\Zhong Weiwei]

The 32-kilometer-long oil-filled and kraft-paper-wrapped high voltage cable, dragged by engine, arrived at Linshi Island of Qiaotou town in Chengmai County at 15:28pm, connecting the power nets of the island to those of the mainland.

The connection ended the island’s history of running power all by itself. "People of Hainan had looked forward to the day for years and it finally came true," said Yin Lian, manager in general of the corporation.

A ship carrying cable left from Guangdong last week and "threw out" cable all the way along. It was about 1,000 meters away off the Linshi Island where the cable was capped with a terminal, which was then carried by a boat to the shore. The terminal was laid along the planned line before an engine boat pulled out the cable under the sea with people cheering.

The cable with a diameter of 14cm will serve the power and telecom nets and national defense mission on the island.

According to South China Power, it was discussing further cooperation with Hainan with three more submarine cables to be laid connecting the island the mainland.