appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Mia Nurmamat

As the country with the world’s largest cohort of billionaires, China is no stranger to wealthy elites engaging in luxurious leisure activities, but one common pastime in the West does not seem to have attracted a commensurate level of interest across the Pacific – yachting.
While Chinese e-commerce billionaire Richard Liu recently announced a multibillion-dollar investment in a new yacht company, regulatory hurdles and infrastructure gaps have kept China’s wealthiest individuals from fully embracing the high seas, according to yacht owners and industry players in southern China.
The JD.com founder’s launch of yacht brand Sea Expandary last month, with a planned investment of 5 billion yuan (US$723 million), signalled a potential transformation of yachting into a more accessible, mass-market activity in China, as its appeal fades among the affluent, they said.
Wang, a Guangzhou resident who bought a two-deck yacht for more than 10 million yuan several years ago, said the experience has fallen “far short” of his expectations.
According to Wang, the biggest challenge lies in the water-use restrictions of the Greater Bay Area – the economic and business hub that links the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau with several cities in mainland China’s Guangdong province.
“Whenever I sail south past the waters of Hong Kong or Macau, I receive a call from the local police station shortly after returning to Guangdong,” he said.
As Hong Kong and Macau operate separate customs and border control systems, every return voyage requires him to explain to authorities that he has not brought back any smuggled goods.
Wang added that yachts registered on the mainland are equipped with GPS trackers, making it difficult to avoid leaving the mainland’s waters when heading south.


“In the east you have to pass Hong Kong, and in the west you have to pass Macau. There’s no way to avoid being questioned,” he said.
“While the calls are not exactly interrogations, for rich people like us who value privacy it is still quite disturbing,” Wang added, saying he has decided to sell the yacht and is waiting for a buyer.
His experience is not unique. At a well-known yacht club in Shenzhen, dozens of boats line the dock, yet the marina remains quiet even on weekends.
Pointing to a medium-sized yacht covered in barnacles, a manager at the club said: “The last time this boat left the harbour was last summer. It has been sitting idle ever since.”
The manager, who declined to be named due to company policy, said the club – like many others in Shenzhen – was bustling before 2019. But customer numbers dropped sharply after Beijing tightened its crackdown during the pandemic on officials’ lavish banquets and luxury spending.
The curtailing of excess among public servants has led even wealthy individuals in the private sphere to become more cautious about displaying their lifestyles, he added.
“Many of our clients now prefer to sail in places like Portofino in Italy,” he added.
China’s yacht industry is still finding its footing on the global stage. According to a report released last October by research firm Mordor Intelligence, China’s yacht market is currently valued at about US$450 million, with up to 100,000 yachts berthed at the country’s roughly 110 marinas.
Marina berth availability in major coastal cities represents a structural bottleneck that constrains market growth despite rising demand from high-net-worth individuals
Mordor Intelligence
By comparison, the global yacht industry was valued at about US$26 billion as of 2023, with Europe accounting for roughly 69 per cent of global yacht charter revenue, according to statistics published by Dream Yacht Sales in January.
Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Society of Reform think tank, said China’s yacht industry remains in its infancy.
“Take Guangzhou as an example – there are about a dozen marinas, but many of them either exist in name only or see very little activity,” Peng said.
“Many yachts used to belong to property developers. They rarely used them themselves and instead let wealthy clients entertain on board,” he added. “That is largely the case across the country.”
Even in the economically powerful province of Guangdong, Peng said, the industry faced multiple obstacles, including water-use restrictions, relatively high costs and heavy reliance on imported vessels.
These are some of the challenges Liu hopes to address with his Sea Expandary project, with the ultimate aim to make yachts a product that ordinary workers and consumers can afford. He has set a target price of around 100,000 yuan (about US$14,558) for environmentally friendly models.
More affordable yacht experiences are already emerging in some areas. In Shenzhen, chartering a yacht typically costs around 1,400 yuan per hour, while now in the city’s Shekou district some operators offer packages of 240 yuan for three hours including dinner.
“If yachts become accessible to ordinary consumers, the market could become quite large,” Peng said. “It could also accelerate the replacement of imported yachts with domestically built ones.”
On Monday, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources pledged to support local governments in allocating more space for yacht and recreational fishing activities, aiming to make mooring a yacht “as convenient as parking a car.”


Cosco Shipping arm readies China IPO to capitalise on global shipbuilding wave

‘Breakthrough’: Chinese shipyard set to take lucrative orders from Nordic cruise operator

How China’s top 2 container ports became the world’s busiest – and beat Singapore

China debuts regular Arctic shipping service amid Iran war. Is this the Polar pivot?

China shipbuilding

China’s high-end yacht owners say industry growth stifled by structural gaps

Richard Liu’s brand, Sea Expandary, has signed a strategic framework agreement with the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong, for a high-end yacht industrial base with planned investment of about 5 billion yuan. Photo: handout

China’s cruise industry passes major milestone as Beijing eyes travel boom

The Adora Magic City is the first Chinese-made large cruise ship. Photo: Getty Images

The Adora Magic City, China’s first domestically built large cruise ship, sets off on its maiden voyage from Shanghai in 2024. The vessel has since handled 1 million passengers. Photo: AFP

A boat in every dock? Chinese billionaire unveils plan for mass yacht production

Richard Liu’s brand, Sea Expandary, signed a strategic framework agreement on Tuesday with the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong, China’s southern powerhouse province, for a high-end yacht industrial base with planned investment of about 5 billion yuan (US$723 million), according to social media posts by the city governments.  Photo: Handout

E-commerce billionaire Richard Liu, founder of China’s retail giant JD.com, has launched a new nautical brand for the mass production of yachts. Photo: Handout

China’s economy starts 2026 strongly as retail sales, investment rise

People shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya, south China’s Hainan province, on December 18, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

People carrying shopping bags cross a street in Beijing. Photo: AFP

The pivot: how China turbocharged its industrial policy and remade the global economy

Illustration: Henry Wong

‘Iron rice bowl’ vs the algorithm: why China’s economy may better withstand the AI shock

illustration by Lau Ka-kuen

Humanoid robots perform during China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala on February 16. Photo: Handout

The creators of AI are now among those who may bear the brunt of the AI employment shock. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Crowds seen at a job fair in Meishan city, Sichuan province, on February 25, 2026. Photo: Xinhua

Ads for ByteDance’s cloud and AI service platform Volcano Engine and chatbot Doubao are seen at the Beijing Capital International Airport on February 5, 2026. Photo: AFP

Economy

China Economy

News

China

Money & Wealth

Shipowners say billionaire Richard Liu’s new venture to make yacht ownership more affordable will need to surmount significant challenges


Shipowners say billionaire Richard Liu’s new venture to make yacht ownership more affordable will need to surmount significant challenges.


China’s high-end yacht owners say industry growth stifled by structural gaps

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Shipowners say billionaire Richard Liu’s new venture to make yacht ownership more affordable will need to surmount significant challenges

Shipowners say billionaire Richard Liu’s new venture to make yacht ownership more affordable will need to surmount significant challenges