SINGAPORE - Rare artefacts from a sunken Chinese warship named after revered revolutionary forerunner Sun Yat-sen are on display in a collaboration project between China and Singapore starting from Saturday.

The exhibition, featuring some artefacts from the Zhongshan Warship Museum, which is based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, will be open to visitors till April 19 next year at Singapore's Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.

It is the first time for the artefacts from the warship to be put on display outside China.

The collaboration is an important cultural exchange between Singapore and China, Singapore's Culture, Community and Youth Minister Lawrence Wong said at the opening ceremony attended by Li Baoguang, charg d'affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Singapore and representatives from the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has given support to the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall over the past decades, as well as guests from Singapore and abroad.

Wong said the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall will also be extending their exhibitions abroad.

"This will allow the overseas public to get a better understanding of the close relationship between Singapore and the Asian region. This spirit should be encouraged," he said.

Japanese fighter planes sank the Zhongshan Warship during the Sino-Japanese war, and the warship was submerged for 59 years. Pulled out of the Yangtze River in 1997, some 5,000 artefacts were salvaged from the warship.