China Ocean Museum to open soon

Aerial image of the China National Ocean Museum [Photo/ifore.com.cn]

The China National Ocean Museum, the country's first national-level, comprehensive, public-access ocean museum, will open at the end of 2017. It will be located in the Sino-Singapore Eco-City in Binhai new area.

Image of the interior of the China National Ocean Museum [Photo/ifore.com.cn]

The exhibitions in the museum will be themed on "Oceans and Humans" in three parts: basic, special, and temporary, and will cover 29,502 square meters. The lobby and seven halls will occupy 70 percent of the exhibition area, or 20,522 square meters. The hall focuses will be China maritime civilization, the Maritime Silk Road, China seas, ancient oceans, today's oceans, a children's hall and a hologram performance hall.

The "Oceans" part of the museum will exhibit the birth and evolution process of oceans and their life forms, and marine environment and ecology, displaying the spatial and temporal changes in marine natural history. The "Humans" part will explain the different level of marine civilization development to show the evolution of Chinese marine ocean civilization.

Temporary exhibitions will be an international communication platform for ocean science and culture and an interactive platform for different countries' ocean museums.

The China National Ocean Museum has a unique design. It looks like a dock on the edge of the sea, an open palm or a flexible marine organism. The main building is on land, and the other parts extend underground. The message of the design seems to be that humans will always continue to explore the oceans.

After completion, an exhibits warehouse, a special room for repairing and photographing collections, will also be built. It will provide a combination of exhibitions, education, scientific research and entertainment, all of great service to the museum.

There are 50,700 artifacts and other items in the China Ocean Museum such as ancient animal fossils, sea shells, ammonite and coral. In addition, there are some marine cultural relics -- porcelain raised from the seabed and other relics from sunken ships, coastal defense artifacts and weaponry.

A ceramic artifact of the Jin Dynasty (265-420) [Photo/ifore.com.cn]

A defense map of Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) [Photo/ifore.com.cn]

The Barrel from Ming Hongwu (1372) is the earliest barrel firearm in the world.

A Land and sea defense map of Taiwan of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) shows the period's defensive power.

An ancient ship named Lyumeimao has a long history.

The 752 missile destroyer is donated from the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution and the JJ-6 is donated from China people's Liberation Army Navy South Sea Fleet.

All will be highlights of the exhibitions.