There were open and enclosed promenades, bars, restaurants, a smoking room, library, children's playroom, photo lab, laundry and theatre.

[2] She was launched on 5 April 1962 by the French President, Charles de Gaulle and entered service 5 September 1962, with a cruise to the Canary Islands.

Her original name comes from the town of Ancerville, Meuse in North-East France, the birthplace of Nicolas Paquet, the founder of CNP.

[9] In July 1970, Ancerville rescued all passengers and crew of the burning and sinking liner Fulvia near the Canary Islands.

[12] As COSCO needed the ship as soon as possible, her final cruise returning from the carnival in Rio de Janeiro was terminated abruptly in Tenerife[13] instead of Marseille and the passengers flown home.

[18] In 1978 rising racial tensions in Vietnam between the Vietnamese and the ethnic Chinese who had settled there during colonial times caused a refugee crisis.

In June, the Chinese government dispatched the Minghua[19] and one other ship from Canton (now Guangzhou), to help evacuate refugees.

[20] In May 1979 the Minghua took a Chinese Government goodwill delegation of 600 people led by General Liao Chengzhi, the President of the China-Japan Friendship Association to Japan to help improve relations between the two countries.

The Minghua spent a month cruising around Japan, arriving first at the western port of Shimonoseki and continuing on to Kyoto, Nagoya, Toyama, Tokyo and Nagasaki before returning to China.

They arranged to charter the Minghua to operate cruises from Australia to the South Pacific, Hong Kong, SE Asia, Japan and China.

[24] Her first voyage as a rebuilt cruise ship, departed Shanghai on 15 December[25] to Sydney arriving on New Year's Eve.

[26] COSCO invited an established shipping line, Burns, Philp & Co. in Sydney to continue as a joint venture partner.

[28] In Australia, Cairns was a frequent port of call and there were occasional visits to Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Fremantle and Darwin, usually on the way to Asian destinations.

[8] On February 2, 1983, after a disagreement over money the joint venture partners announced the ship would be withdrawn with the final cruise commencing May 20 to Hong Kong arriving on June 9.

[35] On August 17, 1983, the ship arrived in Shekou,[34] to be refitted as a tourist attraction and part of an entertainment complex that in 1984 was named Sea World (海上世界) by Deng Xiaoping, the PRC's paramount leader, during a stay on board the Minghua.