The first shipbuilding museum opened to the public yesterday on Luban Road, Shanghai, enabling visitors to look through the periscope of the country's first homemade submarine, which was launched in 1956.

With the total exhibition area of 1,800 square meters, the museum is located on the second and third floors of the technical center building of Jiangnan Shipyard Company.

"The museum not only tells of the city's long history of shipbuilding but provides interactive activities to ensure visitors have fun," Hu Keyi, Jiangnan's technical director, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The museum exhibits more than 600 pictures, models and ship-related artifacts dating back to 1865, when the Jiangnan Shipyard, the country's leading shipbuilding capacity, was founded.

A major exhibit in the museum is a replica of the country's earliest Armstrong tear-bore steel cannon. It was made by the Jiangnan Shipyard in 1888 and was used as a major weapon to help the country defend against outlying forces.

Visitors can build a personalized virtual ship within dry docks by using special software. They can also paint the exterior of their ships with different colors.

Zeng Ming, a manager of the museum, said: "The shipbuilding software can give visitors a deep impression of the whole process of how a ship is built."

"Normally, visitors can only watch a certain portion of shipbuilding if they come to visit real shipyards," he said.

Managers at the museum also built a model of the command cabin of the country's first homemade submarine.

Location: Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co., Ltd, No.600, Luban Road, Shanghai

Tel: 86-10-63151818 ext.2439

(Shanghai Daily December 9, 2004)