Quanzhou Maritime Museum

2021-07-19 15:22:50

Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Quanzhou Maritime Museum is a Level-I national museum founded in 1959. It currently consists of two sections – the Main Exhibition Hall by the East Lake and the Ancient Ship Exhibition Hall in Kaiyuan Temple. The museum has a total site area of 35,000 square meters and a total exhibition floor area of 11,000 square meters. 

Quanzhou Maritime Museum is the first one of its kind in China, centered on the history of Zayton (the historical name of Quanzhou) as the number one port of the East in the Middle Ages. It vividly recreates the glorious historical scenes of China’s ancient Maritime Silk Road through a rich collection of unique maritime artifacts. The museum currently has six thematic exhibition halls: Quanzhou Bay Ancient Ships, Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China, Quanzhou Religious Stone Carvings, World of Chinese Boats and Ships, Arabs-Persians in Quanzhou, and Zhuang Hengdai Collection (by appointment only). These exhibition halls hold and exhibit many world-famous cultural relics and treasures. The museum’s most prized possession is the Song-Dynasty shipwrecks, which are “national treasures” and from which many artifacts were recovered. In addition, there are dozens of ancient wooden, iron and stone anchorages, hundreds of Song-Yuan Islamic, ancient Christian and Hindu stone carvings, exported ceramic wares from various historical periods, and models of representative ships from various Chinese waters, as well as numerous maritime folklore artifacts. These cultural relics epitomize Chinese maritime civilization. 

Quanzhou Maritime Museum is an important base for the study of China’s maritime history. It hosts the secretariat of the China Association for Maritime History Studies and the editorial board of the Journal of Maritime History Studies. Moreover, the museum is one of China’s first group of National Demonstration Base for Patriotism Education, National Youth Education Base and National Marine Science Popularization and Education Base.