--- title: "Soviet Aircraft Carrier Turned Failed Chinese Tourist Attraction Is On Fire (Updated)" description: "The increasingly dilapidated former Kiev class carrier Minsk has been sitting in a man-made lagoon northwest of Shanghai for years." date: "2024-08-16" modified: "2024-08-17" authors: - name: "Joseph Trevithick" job_title: "Deputy Editor" link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/joseph-trevithick.md" url: "https://www.twz.com/news-features/soviet-aircraft-carrier-turned-failed-chinese-tourist-attraction-is-on-fire" categories: - "Around The Globe" - "Carriers" - "China" - "Europe" - "Indo-Pacific" - "Navies" - "News & Features" - "Russia" - "Russian Navy" - "Sea" --- # Soviet Aircraft Carrier Turned Failed Chinese Tourist Attraction Is On Fire (Updated) ![A major fire, which may still be ongoing, has reportedly broken out on the former Soviet Kiev class aircraft carrier Minsk, which has been rotting away in a man-made lagoon just off a stretch of the Yangtze River in China for years now.]() *via X* A major fire, which may still be ongoing, has broken out on the former Soviet [*Kiev* class aircraft carrier]() *Minsk*, which has been rotting away in a man-made lagoon just off a stretch of the Yangtze River in China for years now. *The War Zone* previously dove into the saga of how the flattop came to be anchored there in a feature you can find [here](). ![]() **via X** The cause of the fire and *Minsk*'s current status are unknown. Local authorities say the blaze broke out at around 4:00 PM local time, that there have been no apparent casualties, and that the incident is under investigation, [according to Chinese media](). Pictures and video footage have emerged online that show a significant fire. https://twitter.com/CavasShips/status/1824541137606152483 https://twitter.com/whyyoutouzhele/status/1824440911474069525 https://twitter.com/hashiqi628/status/1824389691581386822 Fires onboard even well-maintained ships can easily become disastrous, especially if they are undergoing maintenance and only a skeleton crew is on board keeping watch. A prime example of this is [the blaze that raged for days]() aboard the U.S. Navy's *Wasp* class amphibious assault ship USS *Bonhomme Richard* in 2020, [which ultimately rendered]() the [vessel a total loss](). What is left of *Minsk* has not, by any indication, been kept in good shape, which could have create increased risks. ![]() *A satellite image of the ex-*Minsk* at its present location in 2019. *Google Earth** *Minsk* was commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1978. The *Kiev* class as a whole was something of an oddity among warships, with 40,000-ton-displacement vessels looking more like a hybrid of an aircraft carrier and a [battlecruiser]() than a traditional flattop, as you can read more about [here](). After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Navy inherited the ships, but quickly found them difficult and expensive to sustain. In 1993, the *Minsk*'s sister ship *Novorossiysk* notably suffered a major engine room fire. ![]() **Minsk* in service with the Soviet Navy in 1983. *DOD** Three of the four *Kiev* class carriers were ultimately sold off, with *Minsk* and *Novorossiysk* initially heading to a shipbreaker in South Korea. *Admiral Gorshkov* (originally named *Baku*) was sold to India in 2004 and became the subject of its own saga before finally entering service in that country in 2013 as the [INS *Vikramaditya*](). *Novorossiysk* was ultimately scrapped in South Korea, but local protests led to *Minsk* being sold off to a Chinese company to be broken down. A group of Chinese entrepreneurs subsequently saved the ex-*Minsk* from the torch. The ship, with a mixture of retired Soviet-design and Chinese combat aircraft on its deck, became the centerpiece of a theme park called Minsk World that opened in 2000. Minsk World went bankrupt in 2006 and the Chinese government eventually reclaimed the land it stood on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFifAs-mHkM In the late 2010s, *Minsk*, already in increasingly poor condition, was relocated to where it sits currently, some 50 miles northwest of the Chinese city of Shanghai. Plans to establish a new Minsk World never came to fruition and the steadily more dilapidated ship became a destination for so-called 'urban explorers' to sneak aboard, as can be seen in the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGHoBptVwyk&t=2s There are reports that authorities in the nearby city of Nantong had [announced plans in January]() to rehabilitate the ship and turn it into a "national defense science education center." It's interesting to note that former *Kiev* is also in China, where it became a separate tourist attraction at the [Binhai Aircraft Park]() in Tianjin, China, some 100 miles southeast of Beijing. In 2011, the company that owns Binhai announced plans to turn the carrier, which has been much better maintained than *Minsk*, [into a floating luxury hotel](). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpg2aT1Vc0I The extent of the damage that former *Minsk* may now have suffered remains to be seen. It is unfortunately possible that the ship's already very sad story is now finally coming to an inglorious end. **UPDATE:** The fire looks to have subsided, but the island superstructure is destroyed: https://twitter.com/lfx160219/status/1824653101040857527 *Contact the author:* [*joe@twz.com*]() ## Author Joseph is *TWZ’s* Deputy Editor, helping to oversee the site’s highly experienced and dedicated team, while also writing informative and impactful defense and national security content. He lives right in the thick of it in the Washington, D.C. area. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Bluesky]()