Danish Vikings invading China

The first major exhibition in China of the Danish Viking Age starts later this month

Mar 10, 2015

‘Dragons of the Northern Seas – Viking Age Denmark’, a temporary exhibition at China’s Suzhou museum, will open on March 27 and run until June 28.

The installation is part of the joint Danish/Chinese culture year 2014-15. It is the first major exhibition on the Viking Age to be shown in China.

The exhibition is designed to introduce Chinese museum visitors to the unique culture created by the maritime society of the Viking Age, running from about 800-1050 AD, a period roughly the same as the late Tang and early Song dynasties in China’s history.

"The exhibition will display some of the finest objects from the Viking Age in Denmark," explained Flemming Just, the director of Sydvestjyske Museum, in a statement.

Just is in charge of the exhibition, which is backed by a consortium consisting of the National Museum, Aarhus University, Sydvestjyske Museums and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.

An entire ship makes the trip
Examples of Viking jewellery, art and tools will be on display, and the art of Viking Age shipbuilding will demonstrated via an exact replica of a Viking craft built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The Viking ship 'Eik Sande’ is a meticulous full-scale reconstruction of a Viking ship.

The ship was carefully recreated by builders at the Viking Ship Museum and demonstrates how the Vikings knew how to choose the right timber and exploit its natural form.

"The Vikings were seafarers and their ability to cross the seas to plunder, conquer and live on three continents, changed the world between 800-1050,” said Tinna Damgaard-Sørensen, the director of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.

“We will show the people of China the special relationship that Vikings had with their ships.”