Hong Kong Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational institution funded by Hong Kong's international shipping community and is located on the ground floor of Murray House in Stanley, Hong Kong.
The museum illustrates how China, Asia and the West have contributed through the ages to the development of boats, ships, maritime exploration and trade, and naval warfare. While concentrating on the South China coast and its adjacent seas, it also covers global trends and provides a comprehensive account of Hong Kong's growth and development as a major world port and maritime centre.
The museum includes semi-permanent and special exhibitions, dynamic displays, educational events and a museum shop.
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The museum is divided into two galleries, the ancient gallery and the modern gallery, displaying more than 500 exhibits including models of ancient and modern ships, paintings, ceramics, trade goods and ships manifests. A model of a 2,000-year-old boat made of pottery from the Han Dynasty is one of the highlights of the Museum. Another treasure is the early 19th century, 18 metre long, ink-painting scroll, Pacifying the South China Sea, showing how the Viceroy of the Two Guangs, Bailing, solved the problem of piratical lawlessness on the Guangdong coast in 1809-1810. A featured highlight is the Battle of Lantau in which imperial naval forces battled Hong Kong's most famous pirate, Zhang Baozai.
The ancient gallery portrays the fortunes of Chinese shipping during ancient and dynastic times. It also illustrates how China's overseas neighbours and Western trading nations together shaped the maritime history of Asia and the regions beyond. The modern gallery explores the historical factors and the Chinese entrepreneurship that have made Hong Kong a maritime success. It covers developments in motive power, shows how bulk carriers, tankers and containerization have changed the face of world's shipping industry, and previews experimental craft of the future.
Visitors can also explore the history of the seafaring in Hong Kong via a video about the ship of the future and interactive games for both kids and adults. For example, an interactive computer simulation allows the visitor to take control of a modern container ship and guide her into the Port of Hong Kong.
Tue to Sun, Public Holidays : 10am - 6pm
Closed on Mondays, 1st and 2nd days of Lunar Chinese New Year
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum is currently in the process to move to Central Pier 8. Until recently this building used as one of the terminals for the Star Ferry to Kowloon. This move represents a partnership with the Hong Kong Government. The move will allow the museum to expand its gallery spaces and offer more educational opportunities for the public.
The South China Morning Post reported that the Hong Kong partly financed the HK$115 million renovation project. Richard Wesley, the Hong Kong Maritime Museum Director, said the blessing ceremony this project "marks the culmination of an enormous amount of work by board members and trustees of the HK Maritime Museum to create a truly high-class maritime museum in the Central waterfront. We are very grateful to the many shipping companies who have backed the museum financially since its birth in 2005, and of course the government."
The display space at Pier 8 will be more than five times the area in the existing museum and it is forecast the museum will receive around 140,000 visitors a year.