A museum featuring relics of the so called maritime Silk Road, including sunken ships of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), will be built on Hailing Island, south China's Guangdong Province.

The entire project will consist of an exhibition hall on shore and an underground exhibition hall and will cost 180 million yuan (about US$21.69 million), of which, 160 million yuan will be covered by the provincial government, said Zou Ququan, head of the Cultural Bureau of Yangjiang City, which exercises jurisdiction over Hailing Island.

Sunken ships dating to the Song Dynasty were first found in the 1980s near Hailing. Early this year, a UNESCO delegation inspected the site of the discovery in preparation for making ancient sites on the marine Silk Road into a world cultural heritage.

Completion of the museum will promote tourism in western Guangdong, said Zou.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2004)