BEIJING, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 9 July 2026 - Ten years after the South China Sea arbitration, CGTN has published an article exploring the story of the Genglubu – a handwritten navigation manual that guided generations of Hainan fishermen long before GPS, shedding light on a chapter of South China Sea history unfamiliar to many outside the region.
Before GPS. Before weather forecasts. Before satellite navigation.
How did generations of Chinese sailors find their way across the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest and most challenging waterways?
A new CGTN documentary, Genglubu: Charting the South China Sea, explores the answer through a little-known ancient navigation manual passed down for generations of fishermen in Tanmen, Hainan Province. The Genglubu recorded routes, compass bearings and sailing distances, helping fishermen navigate reefs, islands and open seas. The documentary follows the fishermen who crossed the sea, the families who preserved their knowledge and a maritime tradition that connected China with Southeast Asia and beyond.
The People Who Brought the Genglubu to Life
To outsiders, the Genglubu looks like a secret code. A single line of just fourteen Chinese characters can contain an entire sea route: the departure point, direction, destination, distance and estimated sailing time.
"Generation after generation, Hainan fishermen rode the waves – not to rule the sea, but to make their living from it."
Xin Lixue, Curator, China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea
The documentary follows veteran fishing boat captains whose lives were inseparable from the sea. Wang Shitao first went to sea at the age of nine. At twelve, his fishing boat was caught in a typhoon. Everyone else on board died. Clinging to a piece of floating timber, he drifted alone for three days. Four years later, another violent storm struck. Once again, he was the only survivor. Yet each time, he returned to the sea. Late in life, reflecting on decades spent sailing the South China Sea, he summed up his feelings:
"I love the South China Sea. I hate it. I miss it."
Wang Shitao, fishing boat captain
The sea demanded sacrifice even as it provided a livelihood. A storm or mishap could wipe out an entire crew.
"Children and brothers should never sail on the same boat."
Wang Shubao, fishing boat captain
A Maritime Tradition Connecting Asia
The documentary challenges the common assumption that the Genglubu was only about the South China Sea. Research on the Liang Family Genglubu reveals routes extending to Singapore, Malacca and Indonesia, showing that Hainan fishermen also played a role in regional maritime trade.
"Hainan fishermen also took part in overseas trade."
Zhao Jueqi, China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea
Not every route was written in words. Some Genglubu manuscripts contain mountain-and-water charts. They combine sketches of coastlines with compass bearings, water depth and sea conditions. These drawings helped sailors identify islands, reefs and coastlines and determine their position at sea.
"The Americans and the British produced their own navigational records, which identify the Chinese as being engaged very heavily in fishing on these islands and other forms of economic activity."
Anthony Carty, International Law Sholar
Today, satellites, weather stations and lighthouses have transformed navigation across the South China Sea. But the purpose remains the same: helping sailors travel safely and return home. Genglubu: Charting the South China Sea traces a maritime tradition shaped by generations of ordinary people. It is a story of navigation, memory and resilience, one that forms part of the shared maritime heritage of Asia.
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COLOMBO, SRI LANKA- Media OutReach Newswire - 9 July 2026 - On July 4, 2026, the cultural exchange event Encounter & Insight: Dialogue Between Ningbo, China and Colombo, Sri Lanka took place in Colombo.
On July 4, 2026, the cultural exchange event Encounter & Insight: Dialogue Between Ningbo, China and Colombo, Sri Lanka took place in Colombo.
Separated by thousands of miles, the two millennia-old port cities reconnected, leveraging their ports as a bond and cultural exchanges as a cohesive force to hold in-depth talks on integrated port-city development and bilateral economic and trade connectivity.
This cross-Indian Ocean dialogue echoes the ancient Maritime Silk Road while charting a brand-new outbound development path. As a pivotal starting port of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, Ningbo is building a new global trade landscape powered by smart manufacturing.
A thousand years ago, merchant vessels from Mingzhou Port set sail southward loaded with Yue Kiln celadon porcelain, passing through Ceylon to deliver Oriental crafts across the Indian Ocean coasts. Precious gemstones and spices traveled the same sea route back to regions south of the Yangtze River, laying the groundwork for the earliest cultural exchange between the two ports through trade. Today, the cargo carried by giant cargo ships has undergone a dramatic transformation. Beyond traditional daily necessities, intelligent equipment, digital home appliances and industrial robots now dominate shipments.
Official statistics show that Ningbo's exports of intelligent equipment, including mechanical arms and industrial robots, hit 440 million yuan in 2025, surging more than 40% year-on-year. From January to May this year, Ningbo's exports of mechanical and electrical products maintained steady growth, reaching 247 billion yuan, a 4.1% year-on-year increase and accounting for 58.0% of the city's total export volume. The new energy foreign trade sector saw explosive growth, with exports of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products jumping 138.4% year-on-year, with electric vehicle exports skyrocketing 215.9%. Smart manufactured goods are continuously expanding the scope of Ningbo's foreign trade.
Complementing the Colombo forum, an exhibition highlights Ningbo's outstanding going-global enterprises and their products, vividly illustrating the profound shift in Ningbo's trade structure.
Alongside time-honored Maritime Silk Road staples such as celadon porcelain and silk, Ningbo's smart manufactured products—including AI translation glasses, intelligent outdoor gear and digital small home appliances—occupy prominent display spaces across the venue. In Sri Lanka, Ningbo smart water meters are widely adopted nationwide, while handheld cooling fans and intelligent kitchen appliances have entered ordinary households.
Leveraging Colombo Port's transshipment advantages, massive volumes of Ningbo smart manufactured goods are distributed onward to Europe, the Middle East and beyond. What Ningbo exports today is no longer mere commodities, but a complete outbound solution integrating technology, brand value and after-sales services.
Faced with mounting challenges including homogeneous global market competition and rising trade barriers, Ningbo's manufacturing sector has abandoned the old model of low-cost OEM production, relying on intelligent transformation to consolidate its competitive edge in overseas markets.
Over more than a decade of digital transformation efforts, Ningbo has achieved full digital upgrading of all industrial enterprises above designated size. A large number of local factories have built unmanned black-light workshops and flexible production lines, escaping vicious price competition through continuous technological iteration. Represented by five specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises dubbed Ningbo's "Five Little Tigers"—famous for their core proprietary technologies, including highly sophisticated visual inspection equipment, heat-resistant materials, sun-proof coatings, puncture-proof materials and self-drilling fasteners—these niche manufacturers have developed differentiated technical routes and full-spectrum production capacity, cementing irreplaceable competitiveness for Ningbo smart manufacturing on global markets.
Beyond trade expansion, Ningbo has built a supporting cultural communication system to ensure "products go global, accompanied by local culture".
The launch of Sri Lanka's first "One-Meter Cultural Space" cultural station during the Colombo event marks a tangible milestone of Ningbo's go-global initiative. Built on enterprises' overseas outlets, these miniature cultural exhibition halls integrate intangible cultural heritage crafts, urban stories and smart products, enabling overseas clients to experience cutting-edge manufacturing while gaining insight into Ningbo's profound cultural heritage.
During the twin-city story-sharing session, Ningbo entrepreneurs based in Sri Lanka and local designers blending Chinese and Sri Lankan aesthetics shared stories of bilateral exchanges. Economic and trade ties have evolved into a bond for people-to-people communication, bridging divides in cross-cultural trade.
From Tang-dynasty celadon porcelain sailing across the Indian Ocean to intelligent equipment shipping to every corner of the globe, Ningbo, the ancient Maritime Silk Road port, has preserved its enduring gene of openness. Where exchanges once relied purely on commodity trade, today smart manufacturing underpins a stable, diversified and high-value-added global trade network.
The Ningbo-Colombo dialogue stands as a vivid microcosm of this transformation: the port still links lands and seas, yet the core of its trade has undergone a full intelligent upgrade.
Rooted in its historical legacy as a key Maritime Silk Road hub, Ningbo has consolidated its industrial foundation through a decade of digital development, expanded global market reach via worldwide port networks, and softened trade cooperation through cultural exchanges. This brand-new outbound shipping route forged by smart manufacturing has not only reshaped the city's foreign trade landscape, but also delivered a replicable port-city development model for Chinese manufacturing to go global.
Hashtag: #NingboSmartManufacturing #MaritimeSilkRoad #GlobalTrade
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