A 40-year dream close to becoming reality
1970 China conducts a study into the feasibility of building an aircraft carrier
1980 Vice-chief of general staff Liu Huaqing boards the US carrier Kitty Hawk
1985 China buys decommissioned Australian carrier Melbourne
1986 Liu recommends having a carrier by 2000
1988 China fights a brief sea battle with Vietnam in the Spratly Islands
1994 China buys decommissioned Soviet carrier the Minsk, now a theme park in Shenzhen
1996 China buys decommissioned Soviet carrier the Kiev, now a theme park in Tianjin
1998 China buys unfinished Ukrainian carrier the Varyag
2002 The Varyag arrives in Dalian
2004 China decides to rebuild the Varyag as its first carrier
2005 Changxingdao yard in Shanghai opens
2007 Chinese warship performs joint exercise with British aircraft carrier Ark Royal at Portsmouth
2008 Dalian Naval Academy launches four-year training course for 50 pilot cadets
2009 First test flight of the J-15 by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation
2009 Concrete mock-up of carrier is spotted at a Wuhan naval research facility, with ski ramp, deck markings and island superstructure
2009 Construction of domestic carrier begins at Changxingdao
2011 Ukraine sentences a Russian to six years' imprisonment for selling carrier secrets to China
2011 Xinhua releases pictures of the Varyag docked in Dalian, painted in PLA Navy colours
2011 Spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office denies the Varyag will be renamed Shi Lang, after a Qing dynasty general who recovered Taiwan for China