A salvage operation to fish up a centuries-old ship wreckage kicked off Saturday on Nan'ao Island on the east tip of south China's Guangdong Province.

The ship, loaded with more than 10,000 pieces of antique porcelain, is from the Wanli period (1573-1620) of Ming Dynasty, said Chen Jianwu with the publicity department of Nan'ao County.

The ship, which is more than 25.5 meters long and 7 meters wide, lies 27 meters deep in the Sandianjin waters to the southeast of Nan'ao Island, Chen said.

When climate condition permits, archaeologists will start salvaging the ship from the seabed, Chen said.

It is estimated that the ship will be salvaged from the water in around mid-December, Chen added.

The wreckage was found on May 25, 2007. For more than 800 days archaeologists have been cleaning, mapping, shooting the ship to prepare for the final salvage.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2009)