On April 26, 2017, a big Chinese ship caught the eyes of the whole world. China's first homemade aircraft carrier (航空母舰) hit the water in Dalian, Liaoning.
The new big ship is China's second aircraft carrier. It was designed in China and built in China, too. It is about 315 meters long and 75 meters wide. That is a bit larger than three soccer fields.
An aircraft carrier is like an airport on the sea. It can carry planes and troops to war. Planes fly from the carrier and land back on it, and soldiers work and live on it, too. But building an aircraft carrier is like an airport on the sea. It can carry planes and troops to war. Planes fly from the carrier and land back on it, and soldiers work and live on it, too. But building an aircraft carrier is so hard and expensive. It costs a lot of money and needs a large amount of steel and other special materials. For example, a basic aircraft carrier is made of 60, 000 tons of steel. It also uses complex (复杂的) technologies, including radar, electrics, mechanics and weapons. Finally, it takes years to build one. Today, not many countries own an aircraft carrier or have the ability to build one. China has become the seventh country in the world that can build an aircraft carrier by itself, after the USA, Russia, England, France, Italy and Spain.
