On August 23rd, the opening ceremony of the 3rd International Seminar of China Maritime Museum was held. This seminar was sponsored by the Chinese Maritime Museum and co-organized by SMU and the Shanghai Ocean University. Mr. Dai Xiaojian, General Secretary of the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Commission, Prof. Xiao Baojia, Vice President of SMU, Prof. Huang Xijian, Vice President of the Shanghai Ocean University, and 40 experts from the universities and scientific research institutes of China and Japan attended this seminar.
The theme of this seminar was "Shanghai, the Combination of Ocean and City ". Experts and scholars who studied Shanghai port history, Shanghai shipping history, and soft power construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Institute attended the seminar. They had made concerted efforts to explore the development of Shanghai shipping and the Shanghai city so as to promote the academic research of Chinese shipping, facilitate the soft power construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Institute and the development of Chinese shipping industry. 
