7. China Raises 800-year-old Sunken Merchant Ship

A sunken ship from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the largest Chinese wreck discovered from that period, was hauled from its watery grave at the end of December, 2007.

Dubbed the "Titanic of China", the ship was heavily laden with a cargo of ceramic, gold and jewel exports when she sank. The 30-m-long vessel went down with 80,000 cultural relics aboard about 60 km west of Hailing Island near Yangjiang more than eight centuries ago.

Labeled Nanhai No. 1, the shipwreck was salvaged by professionals under the Ministry of Communications (MOC) and the Guangdong salvage bureau. It’s deemed as a rare historical retrieval.

Introduction of Nanhai No. 1

Named the Nanhai No. 1 or "South China Sea No. 1" by archaeologists, the ship was discovered in 1987 off the coast of Guangdong Province, buried in two metres (6.5 feet) of silt at a depth of 30 metres.

The Nanhai No.1 could provide evidence of a "Marine Silk Road" linking China's Guangdong and Fujian provinces to Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe, similar to the better-known, overland Silk Road stretching across central Asia into Europe.

"The 'Marine Silk Road', like the ancient Silk Road which connected China with south, west and central Asia and Europe, was also a bridge linking Eastern and Western cultures," said Huang Zongwei, professor at Guangdong's Sun Yat-Sen University.

Exploration of Nanhai No.1

To better protect the precious relics and gain valuable information, archaeologists launched an unprecedented operation in early May to raise the wreck and the surrounding silt in a huge steel basket.