The construction of a national deep-sea base is expected to begin later this year or in early 2013 in Qingdao, a coastal city of Shandong province.

The base is designed to be a state-level oceanic technical support center.

The physical construction of the base will cost 495 million yuan (US$77.8 million) and cover 26 hectares of land and 62.7 hectares of sea in the coastal city.

The base is applying to build a 4,000-tonne mother ship, expected to become operational by 2015.