ĐÀ NẴNG — An exhibition on the history of the Hoàng Sa (Paracel) Island is on display at the Hoàng Sa Island Museum from September 12-21.

The exhibition features nearly 300 articles, documents and photos about the island.

Island district Chairman Võ Ngọc Đồng said there are newspaper articles about ancient historical documents found on the island. More recent documents are also featured, with a report on the illegal oil drilling by Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig (HD-981) in Vietnamese waters off the Hoàng Sa Archipelago in 2014.

Many articles, taken from local and national media, detail China’s illegal activities on the Hoàng Sa Islands.

A collection of articles about ancient maps and historical documents found on the islands, published between 1979 and 2011, is also on display.

There are photos of Việt Nam’s coast guard ships and their crews, and photos of journalists working to report the illegal placement of the HD-981 oil rig.

Entrance is free for all tourists and residents.

Last month, the Island district launched a contest for designers to create a logo and slogan for the museum, one of the most visited sites on Sơn Trà Peninsula. It has hosted 11,000 tourists, including 300 foreigners, between March and July.

The museum displays artefacts and documents showing the legality of Việt Nam’s sovereignty over the Hoàng Sa and Trường Sa islands. These include a collection of 150 maps published between 1618 and 1908.

Many maps show evidence the Paracel and Spratly archipelagoes belong to Việt Nam. This notion is supported by 102 books published in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and the Han Chinese script, all showing the frontier of Southern China is Hainan Island.

The district plans to display the remains of a vessel that was rammed by Chinese boats in Vietnamese waters in 2014 behind the museum. — VNS