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Renovation of Famous Chinese Warship Completed
The renovation of the famous Zhongshan Warship has been completed after 10 months' work, but the plan to let the vessel sail again has been grounded, said sources form the Hubei Shipyard in central China.
The warship was named after Dr. Sun Yat-sen, whose name in Mandarin Chinese is Sun Zhongshan. Sun was a forerunner of the Chinese Democratic Revolution.
On October 24, 1938, the ship was bombed by Japanese invaders at the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945), near Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. It was brought to water surface on January 28, 1997 and sent to the Hubei Shipyard for preservation.
The renovation project, approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, started late last year.
An engineer in charge of the project said they had to strictly observe principles of historic preservation during the work, which meant they could not use new materials in the repairs, thus limiting the chances of fully restoring the ship's navigational capacity.
Consequently, it was decided to turn the ship into a floating museum, he said. An 84-meter long, 24-meter wide dock with five exhibition rooms is currently under construction, and will be open to the public by mid-2001.
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