Latest News:  
Beijing   Overcast/Cloudy    29 / 17 ℃  City Forecast


Submarine inventor thinks deep

By Xu Lin in Wuhan  (China Daily)

08:15, May 09, 2012

Zhang Wuyi, a 37-year-old former boilermaker, waves to onlookers before taking his self-made submarine under water in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Tuesday. Provided to China Daily

Zhang Wuyi is making it easier to farm cucumbers - at the bottom of the sea.

Crawling out of a small silver submarine after a 20-minute dive, Zhang was ready to show off his new gizmo on Tuesday.

"It's like an automatically-controlled undersea harvesting machine, and absorbs aquatic products like a vacuum cleaner," said Zhang, 37, who hopes to put the craft into large-scale production.

The civilian sub is 6 meters long, 2 meters in circumference and can hold two people. The 9-ton craft can stay underwater for up to 20 hours. It is equipped with a camera, radar, positioning system and harvesting equipment.

Since his first dive last August, he has received several orders and numerous calls from home and abroad.

More than 20 people work in his boat company, located in a shabby bungalow in a suburban area, and they share a workshop with another factory.

He has already invested 4 million yuan ($635,000) and is building a 10,000-square-meter plant. About 500,000 yuan was out of his own pocket, while the rest came from friends and other investors.

It takes nearly two months to finish one submarine, catering to customers' different requirements.

In October, Cong Zhijie, who runs a sea cucumber farm in Dalian, Liaoning province, became Zhang's first and, so far, only buyer with a payment of 150,000 yuan.

【1】 【2】


Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name


Selections for you

  1. "Story of Dragon" fashion show held in Beijing

  2. Over 1000-year-old Shanggantang Village

  3. Act of bravery spurs act of kindness


Most Popular


  1. Relax high-tech restrictions
  2. Overseas investment yields not nation's priority
  3. A neutral US helpful to stability in S China Sea
  4. Tourism authority warns of low-cost package tours
  5. Have you felt anxious recently?
  6. Central bank's rise comes at economy’s expense
  7. How to deal with 70,000 boxes of defective Coke?
  8. Foreign airlines optimistic about Chinese market
  9. Stagflation poses real threat to economic growth
  10. EU commissioner looks to increase investment

What's happening in China

Bird's eye view of red tide near Rizhao, Shandong

  1. Beijing may host OTC market
  2. China's online third-party payment booms in Q1
  3. Real estate developers struggle in sea of red ink
  4. Flood leaves 3 dead, 1 missing in NW China
  5. Help for boy who wasn't taught to speak

PD Online Data

  1. Spring Festival
  2. Chinese ethnic odyssey
  3. Yangge in Shaanxi
  4. Gaoqiao in Northern China
  5. The drum dance in Ansai