Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Quanzhou Maritime Museum
泉州海外交通史博物馆

Address: 425Donghu Street, Fengze district, Quanzhou, Fujian province
Website: www.qzhjg.com/html/index.html(Cn)
Hours:
Summer: 8:30 - 17:30
Winter: 8:30 - 17: 00
Closed Mondays (except for national holidays)
E-mail: qzhjgbgs@163.com
General admission: free (passport required for entry)

Established in 1959, the Quanzhou Maritime Museum is a museum dedicated to China's maritime transportation, the maritime silk road, and the incurring economic and cultural exchange. Through a comprehensive and valuable collection of historical relics, the museum reflects the development history of "Zayton" (another name for the city of Quanzhou), the biggest oriental port during the Middle Ages. It also showcases the important role that Quanzhou played in economic and cultural exchanges with foreign countries.

The museum consists of an old and a new section. The old section, situated in the east of the Buddhist Kaiyuan Temple, is used for exhibiting ancient boats. The new section, completed in 1991 and located near the scenic East Lake Park, resembles a large sailing ship afloat on the sea. The two sections cover a total area of 35,000 square meters with a built-up area of 17,300 sq m and an exhibition area of 11,000 sq m.

There are seven permanent thematic exhibitions in the museum, displaying a variety of precious relics related to the ancient maritime culture of Quanzhou and the city's contributions to the nation's shipbuilding, navigation, defense, and cultural exchanges, as well as major inventions of the nation in shipbuilding and navigation.

Exhibits of particular interest include a sunken ship from Quanzhou that dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and was unearthed in 1974, dozens of wooden, iron and stone anchors, hundreds of stone stelae and tombstones with Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, and Hindu inscriptions, ceramics from the Dehua county of Fujian, over 200 ship models from different historical periods, as well as folk instruments used for overseas communication.