A sunken ship from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the largest
Chinese wreck discovered from that period, will be hauled from its
watery grave tomorrow.
Dubbed the "Titanic of China", the ship was heavily laden with a
cargo of ceramic, gold and jewel exports when she sank.
The 30-m-long vessel went down with 80,000 cultural relics
aboard about 60 km west of Hailing Island near Yangjiang more than
eight centuries ago.
Labeled Nanhai No 1, the shipwreck will be salvaged by
professionals under the Ministry of Communications (MOC) and the
Guangdong salvage bureau.
The rare historical retrieval will be broadcast live on
television across the nation.
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After it breaches the surface, the wooden wreck will be housed
in a huge iron container, which, together with seabed mud encasing
the find, will weigh about the same as 15 train carriages, ministry
officials told China Daily.
The shipwreck and its rich treasure will be loaded on a cargo
ship to be ferried next week to a specially built glass house on
the beach of Yangjiang.
The eagerly anticipated treasures will be guarded heavily at
every stage, from retrieval to preservation.
Archaeologists will spend two years inside the glasshouse,
painstakingly unveiling the nautical discovery and carefully
removing her relics.
Several hundred reporters from around the world and thousands of
others involved in the operation have descended on the small costal
city of Yangjiang.
They have come to see the recovery of the first ancient vessel
discovered beneath the "Marine Silk Road".
Historians expect it to shed light on China's centuries at sea,
which only a limited number of surviving documents and salvaged
artifacts have hitherto shed light on.
The findings may bolster a school of thought in the academic
world that China's international contacts were built more at sea
than over land.
According to Chen Gaohua, academician and historian at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ancient China's sea trade
blossomed in the 10th century.
"Contrary to traditional beliefs, shipping lanes were much more
important than the Silk Road in linking the East and West," he
said.
(China Daily December 21, 2007)
