"Grandpa, are there plants in the sea"? "Grandpa, is there plastic in the sea"? Next to the "Deep Sea Gardens" exhibition in the Shanghai Natural History Museum, a group of primary school students raised "big questions" to Professor WANG Pinxian from the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Tongji University, a famous marine geologist and an academician of the CAS. WANG smiled and praised the children for their good questions and answered them patiently.

On December 3, "Deep-sea Garden", an original temporary exhibition on the deep sea, was launched at Shanghai Natural History Museum. The exhibition, the first of its kind in China, was jointly created by Tongji University and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

Why do we stage this exhibition? Is there a "deep sea garden" at the bottom of the sea? According to WANG, there are too few opportunities for people to see the world at the bottom of the sea with their own eyes. Therefore, we decided to "move" the beautiful scene in the deep sea to the museum to show how charming the seabed is. This is the world's first public exhibition of the deep-sea coral forest at the bottom of the sea. Visitors will find it surprising that there are so many animals at the bottom of the sea, and there is another world of life hidden in the dark deep sea.

Here, you can see not only the reconstructed scene of the world's largest cold-water coral forest, but also dozens of rare specimens from the deep sea. According to the exhibition organizer, the exhibits and their display design were carefully selected and checked by WANG's team, and it took one year to prepare for the exhibition.

When you enter the hall, you will be enveloped by the dark tone of the exhibition, as if you are in the deep sea kilometers away. Meanwhile, the wonders of the deep sea shown with dramatic audio and visual effects will meet your eye. Feeling the "colorful black" is like walking in the fantastic deep sea, and "unlocking" the mystery of the deep blue sea. Exploring along the seabed can make you feel the ambition and confidence of human beings to make good use of the sea.

The exhibition is composed of five sections: "Imagination by the sea", "Pursuit of the deep sea dream", "Fairyland in the darkness", "Mystery of the seabed" and "Exploration of the infinite". "Imagination by the sea" takes the myth and legend of the sea as the starting point, and depicts people's desire to explore the sea from fear to hope; "Pursuit of the deep sea dream" shows the historical leap from the sea to the deep sea; "Fairyland in the darkness" focuses on the coral forest in the deep sea, a natural deep-sea "garden" comparable to the garden on the land. In this ecosystem, various corals are scattered high and low, providing a habitat for more animals, which is a wonderful scene in the dark world. Based on the latest research results on the deep sea, "Mystery of the Seabed" guides the audience to understand the coral forest and hydrothermal cold spring organisms from the perspective of researchers; "Exploration of the Infinite" shows the audience how little human beings understand the deep sea by presenting questions to visitors so that we need to work together to understand and explore the deep sea.

The exhibition is composed of five sections: "Imagination by the sea", "Pursuit of the deep sea dream", "Fairyland in the darkness", "Mystery of the seabed" and "Exploration of the infinite". "Imagination by the sea" takes the myth and legend of the sea as the starting point, and depicts people's desire to explore the sea from fear to hope; "Pursuit of the deep sea dream" shows the historical leap from the sea to the deep sea; "Fairyland in the darkness" focuses on the coral forest in the deep sea, a natural deep-sea "garden" comparable to the garden on the land. In this ecosystem, various corals are scattered high and low, providing a habitat for more animals, which is a wonderful scene in the dark world. Based on the latest research results on the deep sea, "Mystery of the Seabed" guides the audience to understand the coral forest and hydrothermal cold spring organisms from the perspective of researchers; "Exploration of the Infinite" shows the audience how little human beings understand the deep sea by presenting questions to visitors so that we need to work together to understand and explore the deep sea.

The exhibition selected more than 30 cold water coral specimens from five families, most of which were collected by Chinese scientists on the "Deep Sea Warrior" ship in the South China Sea in 2020. Among them, 23 cold-water coral specimens were first opened to the public. The museum has 12 specimens of 8 genera of shallow-water corals, which are displayed in the same area as cold-water corals. The rocks and the rock sections from the hydrothermal vents of the eastern Pacific ridge, as well as precious specimens of tubular worms and shellfish, are on display in the deep-sea hydrothermal zone. Meanwhile, the deep-sea cold spring area shows the rocks and biological samples collected from the cold spring area in the South China Sea by the scientific research vessels "Sun" and "Ocean 4" and the unmanned deep submersibles ROV "Science", including complete deep-sea submerged shrimps, shellfish, cold water corals and authigenic carbonate rocks. Before the specimen was exhibited, they had been used for scientific research in the State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology of Tongji University and yielded important scientific research results. There is also a model of the "Deep Sea Warrior" from the China Ship Science Research Center, which will lead you to understand the technological development of ocean exploration.

Cultivate the science and culture of Shanghai style and develop deep-sea science and technology. Professor WANG Pinxian sent a message to the young generation, hoping that more Chinese young people will have the courage and ambition of the sea, embark on a career by joining the new journey of building a maritime power in the new era, and continue to make new and greater contributions to the understanding, protecting and developing the sea.