A full-size replica of a junk, a type of Chinese sailing ship, from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) completed a test sail recently in Quanzhou city of southeast China’s Fujian province.
The Fujian junk is a traditional ocean-going vessel typical to the coastal region. The 30-meter-long replica was built by over 10 famous boat builders roughly over the course of five months. It features an original watertight bulkhead, which separates the hull of the ship into several watertight compartments.
The bulkhead construction was inscribed by China as a national intangible cultural heritage. The replica will be used to demonstrate the ancient Fujian junk and its bulkhead technology, which is still widely used in today’s shipbuilding industry.