The big four

Nanhai-1 was discovered off the coast of Yangjiang in Guangdong province in 1987. The discovery of this ancient shipwreck from the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) spurred China to develop its first underwater archaeological team. The sunken ship was scooped up, along with its thick blanket of silt, and hauled to the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road Museum in December 2007. A plank-by-plank exploration is now on to recover its 80,000 artifacts.

Huaguangjiao-1 was the first ancient shipwreck to be discovered deep in the South China Sea in 1996. By the time the 800-year-old vessel had been fully excavated in 2007, it had been robbed many times and severely damaged. But its excavation helped archaeologists locate nearly 10 other shipwrecks in the surrounding waters.

Wanjiao-1, a merchant vessel loaded with more than 10,000 pieces of porcelain dating back to the reign of Kangxi (1654-1722) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was discovered off the coast of Pingtan of Fujian province in 2005. The shipwreck was fully excavated in 2008.