On October 29th, the country's first LNG (liquefied natural gas) fuel powered passenger ship "Gold dragon boat" was launched in Dongjiang Lake Zixing City, starting the application of LNG clean fuel in China's passenger ships.
The "Gold dragon boat", 24.8 meters long and 7 meters wide, the design speed of 20 kilometers per hour, can carry 90 passengers, the total cost of about 4.5 million yuan, mainly for the Dongjiang Lake National 5A scenic tourism. After the launch of "Gold dragon boat", the technicians will conduct testing and trial trip. The boat is expected to officially run in early December and the operation data will serve as an important basis for China to promote LNG clean energy powered passenger ships.

Dongjiang Lake is a large reservoir on a tributary of the Lei River upstream river and the water quality reached the national drinking water standard, which is one of the key waters in Hunan, the key support lake of national ecological environment protection, and also the strategic water sources in Hunan Province. In recent years, Zixing City put the Dongjiang Lake protection in the first place, actively strived for clean energy ship pilot in the Dongjiang Lake, and promoted the transformation and upgrading of the ships to effectively protect water environment.

In June 2015, the National Maritime Bureau agreed to take Dongjiang Lake as the ship pilot to promote the use of clean energy, and the "LNG implementation plan of ship application in Dongjiang Lake" was compiled by the Ministry of Transport and passed the expert review, Zixing City becoming the first city driven by local government to promote the application of LNG clean energy in ships. In January 13th, 2016, Zixing City signed the construction contract of LNG fuel powered passenger ships in Dongjiang Lake with Hubei Jiangrun Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. On the same day, the country's first LNG demonstration ship officially started the construction.

As a pilot unit, Hunan New Energy Gas Co. Ltd mainly provided the LNG clean fuel to the "Gold dragon boat". Company Chairman Wang Xiangning said that it was the first time to apply the LNG fuel power in passenger ships in the county and the world. Comparing with the traditional ship fuel, LNG can achieve zero emissions of sulfur oxides and greatly reduced the greenhouse gas and particulate emissions by burning oil to prevent the lake water pollution by oil pollution. It is a greater demand to promote the LNG powered sightseeing ships in the Dongjiang Lake scenic spot.

According to the plan, Zixing City will immediately start the construction of LNG filling stations in Changyingtou Port of Dongjiang Lake and other supporting facilities. The city will build 24 LNG powered passenger ships with 90 seats and 6 LNG powered ships with 120 seats to promote the green tourism development in the water source protection area in the next two years.