The national museum for the South China Sea is ready to open in March with a wide range of antiques collected from China and abroad, the museum's preparatory office in China's southern Hainan Province said.
The announcement came as Philippines officials said President Rodrigo Duterte planned to declare a marine sanctuary and no-fishing zone at a lagoon within Scarborough Shoal, which China terms as Huangyan Dao.
The Philippines' plan comes after Manila won an international arbitration ruling in July which had challenged China's seizure of Scarborough Shoal.
The tribunal has struck down China's expansive claims over the areas.
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Reacting to the Philippines plans, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing yesterday thatChina and the Philippines have reached an agreement on coming back to the track of dialogue for the settlement of the South China Sea issue.
"China's sovereignty and jurisdiction over Huangyan Dao has not and will not change," he said.
The South China Sea dispute was toned down by Rodrigo's recent visit to China during which he reset the ties with Beijing, putting the dispute on the back burner.
China's museum, covering 10 hectares, will display artifacts about the history, culture and natural resources of the South China Sea, highlighting China's sovereignty over the South China Sea and the protection of cultural heritage, Ding Hui, head of the cultural department of the Hainan provincial government told state-run Xinhua news agency.
Ten valuable ceramic pieces were donated to the museum by two Chinese companies that purchased them at an auction in New York in September.
In addition, the museum's preparatory office has received 832 antiques donated by fishermen in Tanmen Township of Qionghai City, where the museum is being constructed.
The newest items are more than 100 years old and the oldest date back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 - 589), Xie Haishan, an appraiser based in Guangdong Province said. Most of them were produced in China, while others came from Southeast Asia and Europe, he said.
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