(AsiaOne) BEIJING – China’s largest naval training ship sailed for the Philippines on Friday (June 9), its last stop of a regional “friendly” tour, amid growing unease over Chinese maritime activities in the South China Sea.

The giant training vessel, Qijiguang, bigger than a typical destroyer, left Brunei on Thursday for the Philippines as part an around 40-day trip which has included stops in Vietnam and Thailand before Brunei.

At the end of its trip, Qijiguang and its crew of 476 navy students and officers would have passed through the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand and West Pacific.

Training conducted by the ship, named after a Ming dynasty general who fought against Japanese pirates, would focus on navigation, anti-piracy and shooting exercises with light-weight weapons, according to Chinese state media, which had described its passage in the region as “friendly”.