BAOSHAN District isn't being left out of the fun as the city celebrates the annual Shanghai Tourism Festival. As part of the festivities, the district is hosting the 2015 Shanghai Cruise Travel Festival.

The event will feature myriad marine themed activities, including a photo contest, a business forum on the cruise market and also a collection of videos showing people's experiences on cruise ships.

Quantum of the Seas, a new Royal Caribbean International cruise ship, will be the star of the festival. The vessel, which is making Shanghai its home port this year, features 18 restaurants and can accommodate 4,180 guests.

Another noteworthy feature of this year's festival is the unveiling of a new cruise travel sales contract created by local industry and commerce authorities. This new contract makes clear the rights and responsibilities of both cruise travelers and service providers, and is meant to provide a unified standard for the industry.

At least five companies, including booking platform operator Ctrip, have already begun to use the new contract.

"Over the past few years, cruise ship tourism has experienced some growing pains," said Yu Xiaogui, deputy secretary general of the city government, at the opening ceremony of the festival. "We hope that cruise ship companies, travel service agencies and terminals can get together to solve problems that concern the whole industry."

Officials in Baoshan hope to turn the district into a hub of cruise tourism. These plans are steaming along with help from a huge new cruise-ship terminal.

Developed by Baoshan authorities and Shanghai Yangtze Shipping Corp, the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal cost an estimated 870 million yuan (US$139.5 million) and is intended to rival Singapore and Hong Kong as the best facility of its kind in Asia.

The depot is shaped like a giant silver shell representing the "eye of the Yangtze River." The facility features a 1,600-meter-long wharf and passenger terminal.

In the four years since the terminal was put into operation, it has hosted around 400 cruise-ship berths and accommodated nearly 2 million tourists. This year alone, cruise ships have berthed at the terminal more than 280 times, bringing with them some 1.5 million travelers.

"This is a significant year for the terminal," said an official with the Baoshan District government. "We've had breakthrough numbers, and our revenue is up sixfold from when the terminal was put into operation. Wusongkou is the only cruise ship terminal that pays for itself on the Chinese mainland."

Compared with the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal in downtown Shanghai, the Wusongkou terminal has advantages of deeper waters and a location closer to the ocean, which saves time on international voyages.

Only cruise liners weighing less than 70,000 tons can berth at Shanghai Port due to height restrictions imposed by the Yangpu Bridge. Wusongkou terminal has no such restrictions and can berth two 200,000-ton super-sized cruise ships at a time.

The district government started expanding the terminal in June. The port will be able to berth four large-scale cruise vessels at a time when the project is finished, which could be as early as next year.

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• Shanghai Wood Culture Festival