Keying II Chinese Junk Brick Mural Chinatown Manchester

Images of Britain: Chinese Junk Mural, Chinatown, Manchester

A mural of a Chinese junk done in brick can be seen in the main car park off Faulkner Street in Chinatown in Manchester. The work dates from 1988 and depicts the Keying II, a Chinese junk built in Hong Kong that did indeed sail down the River Irwell in 1985.

The boat came to the UK from Hong Kong in 1980 for the Hong Kong in London Festival. It celebrated the original voyage of the Keying I in 1848. Measuring 18.3 meters (about 60 feet) in length and built in Hong Kong, the vessel later visited Liverpool in May 1985 for an International Waterways Festival before joining the Exeter Maritime Museum collection in Exeter.

When that museum closed in 1997 she sailed to Lowestoft from where the vessel eventually ended up in Eyemouth Harbour in the Scottish Borders, where it became derelict and was broken up after the World of Boats Collection there went bust in 2017.

From Piccadilly Station, Chinatown is about 15 minutes on foot.