Historic ship artefacts on show in Shanghai

The Zhongshan warship is the subject of an exhibition that opened in Shanghai yesterday, featuring 60 national-level cultural relics from the ship being exhibited for the first time in the city.

In 1922, Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, took refuge on the ship after an army general tried to capture him. Sun spent two months on board directing government. Many exhibits, including pistols, were made in Shanghai, said Li Chuntao, director with the cultural relics protection department with the Soong Ching Ling Mausoleum in Changning District, where the three-month exhibition is being held.

It was involved in the Zhongshan Warship Incident in 1926 and sunk in 1938 in the Yangtze River during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, with the loss of 25 crew members.

The Zhongshan warship was raised again from the river in 1997.