The world's most luxurious inland cruise ship departed on its maiden voyage from Chongqing on Sunday and will receive its first batch of tourists on Saturday, according to an official of Chongqing Transportation & Tourism Investment Group Co, the owner of the ship.

Picture taken on May 22, 2011, shows luxury inland cruise liner "Yangtze River Gold 1" on the Yangtze River, which made its debut on Sunday. The ship costs 130 million yuan (about 20 million US dollars) to build and holds 350 passengers. It is 136 meters in length, 19.6 meters in width and reaches speeds of up to 26 km per hour.

The cruise ship, Yangtze River Golden No.1, was designed along the lines of a five-star hotel, and contains conference facilities, as well as sight-seeing elevators, and a helipad for VIPs or in case paramedics are needed, She Yangyi, director of the group's information office, told the Global Times.

Displacing 12,000 tons and able to welcome 350 tourists, the ship is a behemoth at 136 meters and 17 meters high, akin to a six-story building.

For a four-day jaunt down the river from Chongqing to Yichang, Hubei Province, taking in the Three Gorges along the way, a standard room will set one back 3,000 yuan (US$461) per person, but the wealthier may opt for the 36,000 yuan per night presidential suite.

It seems the cruise has had no problem filling its berths, with 15,000 passengers having booked by the end of last month, with domestic tourists accounting for 70 percent of them, She said.

The ship, built by Chongqing Dongfeng Shipbuilding Corporation from February last year to April, is the group's first five-star luxury cruise ship. Over the next five years, the group will pour 2 billion yuan into building up a fleet of 10 such luxury cruise ships on the river.

"This is the world's most luxurious inland cruise, and it marks a new era for the sector's economy," Tang Guanjun, head of the Changjiang River Administration of Navigational Affairs, said at the maiden voyage ceremony on Sunday, according to the Chongqing Daily.

However, there is still a long way to go for the Yangtze River Golden No. 1 to be counted among the great liners of the world.

"The Nile sees 2 million tourists on cruises a year. The Yangtze only gets 200,000," She admitted.