China’s Shanghai Wan Bang Cruise has ended a six-year quest to find a buyer for its only cruiseship, selling it for recycling in India.

The 7,700-gt cruiseship Jia Ri (built 1986) arrived off Alang at the end of last week.

The demise of the Jia Ri marks the end of China’s first dedicated cruise operator.

Shanghai Wan Bang had given the ship an extensive makeover from a coastal passenger cargoship in 1999, making it China’s first domestically built cruiseship.

The vessel operated cruises in Chinese waters and to Vietnam. Sources familiar with the company said it was moderately successful at first, but it was unable to compete when the international cruise lines with larger, more sophisticated ships moved into the Chinese cruise space.

The Jia Ri had spent several years laid up near Guangzhou while Shanghai Wan Bang attempted to find a new trading buyer for the ship. It has no plans to continue in the cruise game.

The 40,200-gt cruiseship Ocean Gala-1 (built 1982) will also arrive off Alang this week, one year after its Indian owner — Pisces Maritime — bought the ship for possible scrapping.

The vessel was deemed to be obsolete when German travel conglomerate TUI put it up for sale in late 2015.

Until then, the ship had been operating as the Island Escape from its UK-based Thomson Cruises subsidiary.

Rejected by cruise players, the only interest shown was from Floating Accommodation Sweden, a newly formed entity that bought the ship to house refugees in Sweden. A lucrative contract with the Swedish government was torn up before the ship was able to receive its first migrants, and the vessel was again on the sales block.

Cash buyer Pisces Maritime was the only company to show interest in the ship, acquiring it in February last year.

Pisces Maritime sent the vessel to Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates, where it sat alongside a pier for the rest of the year.

There have been suggestions that it was being used to house workers involved in a construction project.

Whatever role it was undertaking in the UAE came to an end earlier this year and the ship was laid up near Dubai until it finally sailed off to Alang last week.