【英语中国】中国邮轮被扣韩国济州岛 1600游客被困

A Chinese holiday company has sent planes to South Korea to rescue stranded tourists after authorities prevented its cruise ship from departing the island of Jeju.

Jeju authorities on Friday detained the MS Henna, an almost three-decade-old former Carnival Cruise Lines ship, after a Chinese company petitioned a local court to impound the vessel.

HNA Cruise, the Chinese company that owns the Henna, said on Weibo – a Chinese microblog service similar to Twitter – that it had chartered planes to fly to Jeju to repatriate any of the roughly 1,600 passengers who wanted to return home. The Henna is also carrying about 650 crew members.

While the details of the dispute between the Chinese companies remain unclear, the incident comes as the number of mainland Chinese venturing overseas on holiday – including on cruises – is expanding rapidly. In 2012, more than 80m Chinese spent roughly $100bm on foreign travel.

South Korean media reported that HNA Cruise was involved in a legal dispute with a Chinese company called Jiangsu Shagang. Kang Tae-seok, a Jeju city official, told the Financial Times on Sunday that authorities had prevented the Henna from departing after a Jeju court “accepted Chinese creditor [Jiangsu] Shagang Shipping’s request to seize the ship due to debt problems”.

Mr Kang said the cruise operator had since sent Won3bn ($2.7m) to its agent in South Korea to satisfy a court requirement for the vessel’s release. He added that the Chinese ship would be allowed to depart on Monday morning once the payment was processed.

Jiang Yushen, a spokesman for HNA Cruise, told the FT that the South Korean move to hold the ship was “irrational”. He said Jiangsu Shagang was involved in a dispute with another company in the HNA group that had no connection with the cruise operator.

Xinhua, the Chinese state-run media agency, said on Saturday that China’s National Tourism Administration had called for the immediate release of the ship, and was in talks with South Korea’s tourism ministry.

一家中国旅游企业已派出包机前往韩国接回被困的游客，此前韩国有关部门阻止该公司旗下的邮轮从济州岛启航。

济州岛有关部门上周五根据一家中国企业向当地法院提交的扣船申请，扣留了“海娜号”邮轮(MS Henna)，这艘船龄近30年的邮轮原来属于嘉年华邮轮公司(Carnival Cruise Lines)。

“海娜号”的船东——海航邮轮(HNA Cruise)在新浪微博（中国的微博客服务，类似于Twitter）上表示，其已包租几架飞机飞往济州岛，接回大约1600名乘客中所有希望马上回家的人。“海娜号”上还有大约650名船员。

尚不清楚相关中国企业之间纠纷的具体情况，但这件事发生在中国大陆境外游（包括搭乘邮轮）人数快速增长的时期。2012年，8000余万中国人在境外游期间支出大约1000亿美元。

据韩国媒体报道，海航(HNA)与江苏沙钢(Jiangsu Shagang)之间发生一宗法律纠纷。济州市政府官员Kang Tae-seok周日对英国《金融时报》表示，济州当地法院“接受了中国债权人（江苏）沙钢船务因债务问题而提出的扣船请求”之后，有关部门即阻止“海娜号”离港。

Kang Tae-seok表示，邮轮运营商事后已向其在韩国的代理汇出30亿韩元（合270万美元），以满足法院的放船要求。他补充称，一旦这笔款项顺利入账，这艘中国船舶将获准在周一上午离开。

海航邮轮发言人Jiang Yushen对英国《金融时报》表示，韩方的扣船行动是不理智的。他表示，江苏沙钢与海航集团旗下的另一家公司发生纠纷，这与“海娜号”的运营企业没有联系。

官方的新华社上周六表示，中国国家旅游局已经与韩国旅游部交涉，要求尽快放行该船。

译者/和风