JINAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archeologists said Monday they have confirmed the wreck site of a Chinese battleship sunk in the Yellow Sea by the invading Japanese fleet in 1894.
An archaeological team has also retrieved more than 150 shipwrecked relics from the Dingyuan Battleship, the flagship vessel of the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) sunk in the First Sino-Japanese War, according to a seminar held on Liugong Island, Shandong Province.
The discovery came after two months of an underwater survey jointly carried out by the Underwater Cultural Heritage Conservation Center of China National Cultural Heritage Administration, Shandong Underwater Archaeological Research Center, Museum of Sino-Japanese War (1984-1985) and Weihai Museum.
The discovery of the Dingyuan Battleship is of great historical and scientific value for the research on the history of the Chinese navy, warships, as well as the First Sino-Japanese War, commonly known in China as the Jiawu War, said Jiang Bo, an official with the conservation center.
On July 25, 1894, the Japanese fleet attacked two Chinese vessels off the Korean port of Asan. At the time, Korea was a tributary of the Qing Empire. By March 1895, the Chinese army and navy were routed, which was the first time that China had been defeated by Japan in a military conflict.
