A merchant ship sank 800 years ago raised from the sea

A merchant ship that sank 800 years ago loaded with thousands of pieces of porcelain was raised from the bottom of the South China Sea with its relics yesterday morning in a salvage project unprecedented in international underwater archaeology.

The Nanhai No1, 30.4 metres long and 9.8 metres wide, which dates to the early Southern Song dynasty, was sealed in a huge steel basket before being lifted. It will be placed in a glass-walled pool at a specially built museum in nearby Yangjiang, Guangdong.

"We have packed the Nanhai No1 into the basket to test the operations every day for several months," said Feng Shaowen, head of the Yangjiang Municipal Cultural Bureau, who heads the project.

The barge carrying the ship will take 24 hours to reach the 130,000 square metre China's Silk Road on the Sea Museum, where water temperature, pressure and other environmental conditions inside the huge glass pool are the same as those where the ship has lain on the sea bed.

Qiu Licheng, deputy director of Guangdong's Institute of Archaeology, said: "We need to provide exactly the same conditions as the seabed to protect the wreck and its porcelain from damage. The wreck weighs more than 3,000 tonnes, including its load of relics and the surrounding silt."

Mr Qiu said it was unprecedented and risky to move an entire wreck to another place to continue archaeological research.

"The wreck is the biggest and most complete ancient vessel found so far," Mr Qiu said. "It will also provide plenty of first-hand information about China's navigation history, porcelain technologies and other useful materials."

Archaeologists estimated that at least 60,000 to 80,000 porcelain items were on board when the vessel sank.

The wreck was discovered by the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau when it was helping a British ocean exploration company search for wrecks off Yangjiang in 1987. China's first underwater archaeological training base was established in Yangjiang in 2003.

No more ice-cream hawkers

The last three ice cream hawkers on motorscooters in Kowloon yesterday were mobbed by students posing for pictures with the elderly vendors whose decades-old businesses may close down today.

A candle-light vigil to mark the passing of the mobile traders will be held today near the clock tower at the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The oldest of the hawkers, Lai Hoi-choi, 82, who has been selling ice cream and cold drinks for 56 years, said many students took pictures with their mobile phones.

"They said they will have to bear the cost of expensive ice creams and fizzy drinks sold by their school canteens," Mr Lai said. "They are priced two or three dollars higher."

Chan Po-cheung, 73, said he wished to keep his job a few more years to support his youngest son, who is in Form Five. "What should I do to pay his school fees?"

He was asked by students to stay until after local schools' Christmas parties today. Mr Chan and Mr Lai, together with a 72-year-old hawker in Kowloon, may stay open today and tomorrow.

"We always work as long as the school is open," Mr Chan said. "And we have to clear our stocks anyway."

Their close partner, Shek Kit-wah, who has distributed ice cream and soda to hawkers in Kowloon since 1997, said he would miss the time he spent with the hawkers who have become his friends. "I have lots of fond memories here," he said.

Mr Shek and Cheung Chee-hung, chairman of the dairy workers' union, will meet with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today to discuss the issue.

If no change is made by next Thursday, the vendors will surrender their licences to the government on December 28, three days before the deadline. Each vendor will be paid HK$30,000 in compensation if the licences are surrendered before the deadline. The department discussed the issue this month with legislator Wong Kwok-hing and hawkers' representatives.

The government stopped issuing licences to hawkers selling ice cream in 1993. There are now about 30 such hawkers, including 10 on motorscooters, with the rest using trolleys.

Christmas kitchen

Dear 6AB1 students,

Christmas is coming. I'm sure you're all ready to enjoy the holiday. There is one thing, we all know that our so-called "westerners" have their feasts (large meals) at Christmas time. However, do you actually know what kinds of foods they eat? Today, I want to introduce a TV programme to you. It's called "Nigella's Christmas Kitchen". There are a total of 3 episodes which show you how to prepare your own Christmas meal. I'm sure you'll like it.

The first episode has been aired. The second episode will be on December 21 at 20:30p.m. The third episode will be on December 28 at 20:30p.m. If you have Cable TV, it's on channel 54. For NOW TV, it's on channel 213.

Here's the link to the webpage.

Don't miss it!

Regards,

Mr. Fu

p.s. For the students who don't have access to NOW and CableTV, I'll record the programmes and you can borrow them from me later.

Snow and train

DELAY NO MALL

Avant-garde department store G.O.D has controversially christened three storeys of a shopping centre in Causeway Bay the "Delay No Mall", to remind shoppers of the importance of being on time.

The phrase and the store's fashion line, Delay No More, play on words resembling a Cantonese expletive.

Eye-catching billboards heralding a new outlet have been in place in Yee Woo Street since Friday despite concerns from area schools that foul language was on display.

G.O.D marketing manager Cherry Ma Kit-ying said the name had been used to remind people of the importance of being punctual.

"Watch shops and other design features inside the shopping centre also echo such a theme," she said.

The company was raided by police last month for selling T-shirts and postcards printed with the Chinese characters for "14K" - the name of a triad society.

Nine men and nine women - including shop owner Douglas Young, a designer, sales staff and other employees - were arrested on suspicion of violating the Societies Ordinance.

About 90 T-shirts and more than 500 postcards were seized during raids on the chain's shops in Causeway Bay, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, and its offices and warehouse in Yuen Long.

Ms Ma said they had not received any complaints about the naming issue and would keep the billboards.

In July, a forum organised by Power for Democracy incorporated the sensitive phrase into its slogan "Democracy - Delay No More".

Depp named 'best autograph giver'

Actor Johnny Depp has been named Hollywood's best celebrity at giving out autographs.

The 44-year-old has topped the list for 10 Best Hollywood Signers in Autograph magazine for the third year in a row.

"Though soft-spoken and laid-back, he likes to talk to fans and get to know them while signing," said autograph dealer Anthony Risi.

Matt Damon is second on the list and Will Ferrell was voted the worst celebrity at signing autographs.

Link to the story.

Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'

Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.

Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.

Professor Wieslaw Maslowski told an American Geophysical Union meeting that previous projections had underestimated the processes now driving ice loss.

Summer melting this year reduced the ice cover to 4.13 million sq km, the smallest ever extent in modern times.

Link to the story.

HK out to lead the wireless revolution

City to get internet in the park, on the bus, and even on a hike

Hong Kong could become one giant internet cafe as new wireless internet and mobile phone services are rolled out over the next three years.

The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) is making available two additional portions of radio spectrum for provision of broadband wireless access via WiMax and, for mobile phone users, 3.5G in a bid to make Hong Kong an "advanced wireless city". WiMax is a more powerful version of Wi-fi. A single WiMax tower can provide wireless internet up to 48km away.

The move was announced at a meeting of the Legislative Council's information technology and broadcasting panel last week. It will give Hong Kong one of the world's first WiMax networks, along with cities such as Moscow, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington.

Ofta will auction at least six licences to run the services next autumn. Companies are expected to bid tens of millions of dollars. They will have two years to roll out the services.

Analysts say the move will trigger a massive shake-up in phone and internet markets that is expected to bring greater competition and reduce prices for consumers.

Ofta chief telecoms engineer Cheng Chi-keung said: "This new technology will enable people to use their laptop computers to connect to the internet in many more areas of the city, such as parks, public squares and the harbourfront.

"You will also be able to pick up your laptop and connect to the internet on a bus.

"We are encouraging the operators to roll out the service into rural areas and, in time, we expect high-speed internet access to be available in country parks, on outlying islands and in other remote areas."

Enhanced broadband wireless access will also enable consumers to use the same phone number for their fixed-line and mobile phones, to access their computer via their mobile phone and to receive one bill for all telecoms services.

An Ofta spokeswoman said it had received four expressions of interest for broadband wireless services in a consultation during the summer. Many of the eight licensed phone carriers that took part indicated they were interested in bidding.

Such services would help Hong Kong maintain its competitive edge, she said.

Communications expert Francis Lau Chung-ming, of Polytechnic University, said: "This new technology will mean that computer and phone users will have greater choice between service providers, wherever they are in Hong Kong. It will further open up the broadband communications service market and it will almost certainly drive down monthly rental fees for mobile phones.

"It means that in future mobile phone users may be able to download videos or music, watch TV, or call anywhere in the world for a very low price, whether with simple audio phone or video phone."

York Mok Sui-wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, said ISPs would face very stiff competition from the big phone companies for the new licences and some could be driven out of business.

"I think the government should allocate two or three of the licences for providers that are offering special services such as free wireless broadband services for people on low incomes so as to narrow the digital divide," he said.