China has become a maritime judicial center for the Asia-Pacific region after three decades of effort, according to a report by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) on September 2.

Since maritime courts were first set up in China in 1984, cases have increased annually by around 10 percent. By 2013, a total of 225,283 cases had been handled, of which 215,826 had been concluded, involving over 70 countries and regions, said the SPC.

It was revealed that the annual caseload rose from a little over 100 in the early years to more than 20,000 in 2013, the most in the world.

Between 1984 and 2013, the courts detained 7,744 vessels, of which 1,660 were foreign, and auctioned off 633 of them, including 123 foreign ships.

The 10 maritime courts are located in Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Dalian in Liaoning Province, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Haikou in Hainan Province, Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Qingdao in Shandong Province, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan in Hubei Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province.