More than 800 years ago, an ocean-going merchant ship sank in waters off Yangjiang in south China's Guangdong Province. In 2007, China salvaged the vessel and placed it inside a museum. The ship is now known worldwide as the Nanhai No. 1.
In 2023, the excavation and recovery of all artefacts from the Nanhai No. 1 were completed, yielding an astonishing total of more than 180,000 items — the largest number of cultural relics recovered from a single archaeological project in China.
This film (in Chinese) continues the story of the Nanhai No. 1, revealing Chinese civilization and its enduring cultural connections with the world.
Highlights of this episode：
When the Nanhai No. 1 shipwreck was first discovered in 1987, determining its date became a central question. A 1.72-metre-long gold chain was accidentally salvaged from the waters off Shangchuan and Xiachuan Islands in the northern South China Sea, leading archaeologists to a shipwreck lying nearly 30 metres underwater.
In 2007, China carried out a world-first operation to raise the ship intact. Through studies of the ship's structure, cargo, and written inscriptions, archaeologists confirmed that it dates no earlier than AD 1183, during the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1127-1279).
As the earliest, largest, and best-preserved ocean-going merchant ship of its kind ever discovered, the Nanhai No. 1 serves as an underwater archive containing extensive information about Song-dynasty overseas trade.
Text: Liu Yue
Editor: Huang Qini, James Campion, Shen He
Video source: China Central Television (CCTV), Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum
