China's Maritime Heritage
C Deck
Permanent Exhibition
About the Exhibition
The exhibition introduces the long history and development of China's Maritime Heritage of over 2,000 years. It covers the naval architecture,China trade in Canton, East-West global trade, piracy in South China, and development of treaty ports in the 19th 20th centuries.
Exhibition Themes
Frank Tsao Gallery - Traditional Maritime China
China's maritime civilization has a long history. The exhibition focuses on the early history of maritime navigation, displaying a series of ship models from different eras, highlighting China's shipbuilding technology and exploring China's maritime trade with countries in East and Southeast Asia.
Anthony & Susan Hardy Gallery - The China Trade
The history of Canton trade is illustrated by a collection donated and loaned by Anothony and Susan Hardy.
After 1757, Guangzhou was the only port of trade with foreign merchants, where they crowded at the “Thirteen Hons” to trade in tea, paintings, furniture, silk, porcelain, and silverware. In the late 18th century, the British and Americans used the import of opium into China to redress the balance of trade, resulting ultimately in war and the end of the Canton Trade.
The D L Wu Keying Display
Sponsored by Taiship, in honour of the company's founder Mr. D.L.Wu, this gallery displays a 1:12 model of Keying.
Keying was a three-masted Chinese trading junk made of teak. It sailed from Hong Kong in December 1846 and arrived in England in March 1848 via New York and Boston.
Sea Bandits
Piracy is a very serious issue for seafarers and shipowners throughout the ages.
The 18m-long ink painting scroll entitled ‘Pacifying the South China Sea’ depicts the siege of the famous pirate Zhang Baozai by the navy of the Qing Dynasty.
The gallery also contains weapons used by pirates, dioramas and the huge cannon that the Qing Dynasty used in coastal defences. A series of portraits of ships that were hunted was also displayed.
China’s First Maritime Modernization
In the 19th century, Western countries developed rapidly in the field of science and technology. After the Opium Wars, the need to modernize China through Western methods had become urgent, shipyards and Western-style naval schools were established accordingly.
The exhibition focuses on the period before and after the Sino-Japanese War, and displays exhibits related to Li Hongzhang and Philo McGiffin.