Feature: All eyes on Chinese ship as expanded Panama Canal opens

All eyes were on a Chinese cargo ship, the first to sail through the expanded Panama Canal, as thousands of Panamanians gathered to celebrate the inauguration last Sunday.

Every step of the ship's estimated eight-hour crossing, from the Atlantic side of the newly expanded waterway to the Pacific Ocean, was captured on film, video and in print.

"Thousands of people enthusiastically await the crossing of the Chinese ship, which today steals the limelight," La Estrella daily captioned a photo posted on its website during its minute-by-minute coverage of the historic event.

The larger shipping lane was built to accommodate massive Neopanamax ships, like the one that was crossing the canal. Owned by China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco), this cargo ship measures 300 meters in length and can carry up to 9,400 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units.

"At 4:19 p.m., the ship arrived at the upper chamber of the Cocoli sluice, on the Pacific side, after having begun its crossing this morning at the Agua Clara sluice, on the Atlantic side," the daily said.

Earlier in the day, as the ship embarked on the inaugural voyage, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela posted on Twitter a photo of himself dockside, greeting the ship.

"I am honored to welcome the Cosco Shipping Panama container ship," he wrote about the renamed ship in honor of the event.

His Twitter account also featured photos of himself exchanging gifts with the chairman of Cosco and the ship's captain, who presented the president with an exact miniature replica of the ship.

The expansion work is set to make the 102-year-old canal more competitive as global trade increasingly relies on larger vessels.

The Panama Canal Authority expects to capture some 10 percent of the large-ship traffic between Asia and the east coast of the United States.

In fact, the only thing that currently concerns canal officials is the discounts the Suez Canal is offering to its clients, said Ilya Espino de Marotta, executive vice president of engineering for the expansion project.

"It's as if they don't want them (other ships) to come this way," Espino told Xinhua. "But we have more than 160 (transit) bookings, so I think we are on the right path," she added.

(APD)