By the end of March 2010, the wreck site had been monitored by border police for more than 1,000 days, said Zhu Zhixiong, head of the border defense police station of Yun'ao Town in Nan'ao.
"Since May 2007, we have patrolled the area nearly 4,000 times and stopped about 93 suspicious boats," Zhu said.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage approved the excavation plan in early 2009.
Guangdong was a major center for sea trade in ancient China.
In December 2007, archaeologists salvaged an 800-year-old merchant ship loaded with valuable trading goods off the coast of Yangjiang City, Guangdong, about 600 km from Shantou.
That ship has been kept in a glass pool at a local museum, the water there duplicating the conditions in which the wreck was found.
(With reportings by Xinhua correspondents Lin Junqiang, Lin Chunwei and Zhan Yijia in Guangzhou)
Editor: Feng Hui
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