![](https://www.hzyyingyu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/test-475.jpg)
On the morning of July 20, the exhibition “Leading the Stars across the Ocean – The Legend of Sea Trade in the Wanli Era”, jointly held by Guangdong Provincial Museum and the China Port Museum, opened in the China Port Museum. The exhibition “Leading the Stars across the Ocean – The Legend of Sea Trade in the Wanli Era” was planned by the Guangdong Provincial Museum and won the 13th National Top Ten Exhibition Awards. The exhibition, based on the important achievements of underwater archaeological discoveries in recent years, combined with historical documents and materials, shows the prosperity of China’s ancient maritime silk road, especially the prosperous marine trade in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, from all angles.
There are more than 400 pieces of blue and white porcelain in the Wanli period on display in the exhibition, which truly represents the grand occasion of the sea trade at that time, and there is also no lack of star exhibits in the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which makes visitors feel dizzy. In addition to the rich exhibits, the curatorial idea of this exhibition is also very novel. It links the commodity economy of the late Ming Dynasty, the Western Great Navigation Age, underwater archaeological knowledge, the commercial and trade exchanges between China and the West, and the ancient maritime life into a line, and uses modern scientific and technological means to increase the display of sound and light power of the exhibition, with various interactive links, which not only makes visitors have a clear understanding of the situation at that time, but also makes them feel personally. In addition, in order to coordinate with the exhibition and the China Maritime Day Forum, the China Port Museum also carried out a variety of youth activities, such as “Sailing Darts” and “Little Sailors”. On the afternoon of the launch, Wei Jun, curator of the Guangdong Provincial Museum, gave a lecture on the Maritime Silk Road in the report hall of the Hong Kong Expo.
After the end of the golden era of marine trade in the late Ming Dynasty, after hundreds of years of tortuous development, China’s foreign trade has entered a new starting point of the diamond era in the 21st century. In the context of global economic integration, the Maritime Silk Road has a new connotation: taking the economic and trade integration of Asia, Europe and Africa as the long-term goal, connecting the major market chains of ASEAN, South Asia, West Asia, North Africa and Europe, and developing the strategic cooperative economic belt facing the South China Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The Silk Road was brilliant thousands of years ago, and Ningbo, as one of the “living fossils of ancient port”, has never been absent. Now, in the new journey of building the “the Belt and Road” strategic hub, creating the “the Belt and Road” comprehensive pilot area, and striving to be the pioneer of the “the Belt and Road” construction, Ningbo has once again been pushed to the forefront of the new development of the Maritime Silk Road, and given a new mission. Looking back on history is to better look forward to the future. The exhibition “Leading the Stars across the Ocean – The Legend of Sea Trade in the Wanli Era” was introduced into the China Port Museum to reproduce the prosperity of China’s ancient Maritime Silk Road. (China Port Museum)