Photo shows graffiti painted by navies from various countries on the embankment of Djibouti port.
BEIJING, Mar. 18 (ChinaMil) -- If you follow the Chinese naval escort operations closely, you should be familiar with Djibouti. Djibouti is an important support base for the Chinese naval escort taskforce to rest and conduct replenishment during its escort missions, which has provided great help to the Chinese naval escort taskforces.
The geographical position of Djibouti provides favorable access for global naval escort troops to rest and conduct replenishment. Many vessels including Chinese ships will choose Djibouti to rest and replenish when travelling to the Gulf of Aden for escort missions. Many countries have left their footprints in the Gulf of Aden area over the decade.
Among the "footprints", the graffiti demonstrating "place been visited” is absolutely worth mentioning. In 2008, a naval graffito was left by a country on the harbor embankment in Djibouti. Since then various navies including the Chinese Navy have followed suit. Escort ships are the most common creative elements in these graffiti. It can be said that the graffiti on the embankment have become an important witness to the efforts of global navies to jointly safeguard maritime security.
The number of graffiti created by the Chinese Navy on the embankment is the largest among all graffiti.
However, these graffiti of "place been visited" were improvisational practices without special paints, which were highly prone to erosion exposed in the oceanic climate. In addition, some navies have to paint their graffiti over the old ones due to limited space.
What is even more interesting is that the Chinese Navy, a latecomer, has managed to create the most graffiti on the embankment including China's Type 052C guided-missile destroyers, Type 054A guided-missile frigates, the Type 071 landing platform dock (LPD) vessels and supply ships. Last week, the 31st Chinese naval escort taskforce added two more graffiti paintings on the embankment, using its ships as the protagonists.
The amphibious dock landing ship Kunlunshan (Hull 998), a ship of the 31st Chinese naval escort taskforce, appears on the latest graffito painted by the Chinese Navy.
As for the reason why the Chinese Navy has created so many graffiti, it is likely related to the military management style. The foreign navies usually get leave to go ashore during their resting period while the Chinese Navy spends more time at the port.
At present, the Chinese Navy's support base in Djibouti has been making gradual improvement. In the future, the Chinese Navy will be connected with Djibouti more closely.