Underwater archeologists conduct salvage operations near Xisha islands in the South China Sea. Provided to China Daily

China makes strides in underwater archeology, cultural relics protection

Diving 27 meters into the South China Sea near Nan'ao Island off the coast of Guangdong province last month, Ruan Youhao retrieved the base line he had laid along a shipwreck last July. Armed with a flashlight, he checked the identification marks made on several cabins a year back, before resurfacing 25 minutes later.

Ruan is one of the several underwater archeologists who are currently part of the fourth salvage operations at Nan'ao No 1, a sunken merchant vessel of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) discovered in 2007 in the South China Sea near Nan'ao Island, Guangdong province. Ruan and his team are hopeful of not only salvaging precious relics from the past through their deep-sea mission, but also to unravel the mystery behind the sunken ship.

The Nan'ao No 1 wreck was unearthed after local fishermen accidentally pulled up some porcelain while fishing off the Nan'ao Island three years ago. A series of illegal salvages followed before it caught the attention of the law enforcement authorities in Guangdong who monitored the area and chanced upon the sunken ship.

The fourth round of salvage operations is expected to last till next month and archeologists hope to have recovered much of the cultural relics by then.

"The shipwreck looks exactly the same as last year, and there have been no signs of any illegal salvage," Ruan says, taking off his heavy diving suit.

China's 3 million square kilometers of territorial waters, 18,000 km of coastline and countless lakes and rivers are also custodians of its rich cultural heritage as buried beneath them lie several ancient towns, ships and other vessels.

Like Ruan, scores of Chinese archeologists are now working to bring home the mysteries from the seabed and also preserve the giant underwater museum.

Significant progress

"Despite many difficulties, underwater archeology and cultural heritage protection has made significant progress in China through the last two decades," says Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Interest in underwater salvage operations off the South China Sea began in 1984 after British marine explorer Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of a Dutch ship Geldermalsen. Salvage operations on the wreck resulted in a rich haul of over 150,000 Chinese porcelain artifacts. Many of these relics were later sold for $20 million (14.15 million euros) at a Christie's auction in Amsterdam in 1986.

The need to protect China's rich underwater cultural heritage was forcibly driven home by this experience. In 1987, China's first underwater archeology organization - the Underwater Archeology Laboratory - was founded in the National Museum of Chinese History, now the National Museum of China.

Since 1989, the laboratory has trained more than 90 underwater archeology divers, several of whom also have international exposure in nations like Japan and Italy.

Many of these divers are professional archeologists who work in museums and cultural relics bureaus of coastal provinces when there are no underwater operations. They also travel from one province to another to gather data about the various underwater archeological missions. Some of the divers also hold managerial positions related to underwater cultural heritage protection.

Ruan, who is a member of the third-batch of archeology divers, trained in 2004. The 37-year-old diver has 10 types of diving certificates and participated in all underwater archeology projects off Southeast China such as the Wanjiao No 1 in Fujian province. He also is the director of the Zhangzhou Administration Office of Cultural Relics.