Almost 200 years ago, in February 1822, the ship Tek Sing, after departing from Xiamen, hit a reef and sank in Indonesia. It was discovered in May 1999, becoming the largest Chinese wooden shipwreck discovered so far with the most complete relics. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the wreck, a special exhibition was opened in the China Maritime Museum on Tuesday August 24.

Titled “Special Exhibition of Recovered Cultural Relics of the Tek Sing”, it displays over 400 pieces of porcelain, including bowls, plates, cups, boxes, bottles and sculptures, thus giving a full picture of the discovered Dehua ceramics carried by the ship.

Apart from that, around 100 Dehua ceramics dating back to the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were also showcased to recount the ancient history of Dehua porcelain, which has been more traditionally known in the West as Blanc De Chine.

More than 350,000 pieces of porcelain were actually salvaged from underwater in 1999, which caused a sensation in the world at that time. It is a pity, therefore, that they ended up scattered in different places and were rarely centrally collected in China. Though the China Maritime Museum in Lin-gang is far from downtown Shanghai, many citizens drove one hour to enjoy this special exhibition, bringing such a large number of these relics together in one place.

The nation’s first Tek Sing shipwreck exhibition will last through January 3, 2022.