A Replica Of Flat-bottomed Sailing Ship Editorial Image

Sand ship is a type of flat-bottomed wooden ship used for seafaring in ancient China. It appeared in the Tang Dynasty. It was first used in the Minhang area of Shanghai. In the Song Dynasty, it was called "sand flat-bottomed ship". In the Yuan Dynasty, it was called "flat-bottomed ship". In the Ming Dynasty, it was generally called "sand ship". In the early 10th century, Chinese sand ships sailed to Java. In the 15th century, a large number of sand ships accompanied Zheng He on his seven voyages to the West. The carrying capacity of sand ships ranged from 250 to 400 tons for small ones, 500 to 800 tons for medium ones, and over 1,200 tons for large ocean-going sand ships in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty (1821-1850), there were about 3,000 sand ships in Shanghai, and it is estimated that there were more than 10,000 sand ships in the whole country at that time.