600 year aniversary of Cheng He setting sail in Junk

[SPJ]

General Cheng He was a great navigator and sailor at the time.

He was a moslem Chinese.

Moslem Chinese settled thruout Northern China. They are the largest minority only next to Han people.

Along with them, the moslem cuisines, and moslem Kung Fu, Ba Ji, Pi Gua, Tan Tui, Cha Quan etc.

There is a stamp coming out to commerate his maiden voyage.

He set sails down to South China Sea, Malaca strait, Indian ocean, Persian gulf and east Africa.

It has been 600 years.

:cool:

[HanRen]

He sure is a great explorer. Too bad his political enemies destroyed all his achievements and documents regerding of his great explorations. :mad:

[Indestructible]

If I recall correctly, some believe he made it to the Americas.

[gfx]

I highly doubt that, but his explits are amazing nevertheless.

There are tribes in Africa today that claim to be descendants of the sailor that shipwrecked in one of his expeditions. There were tons of Ming dynasty artifacts found in those areas as well. Truely breathtaking stuff.

[Indestructible]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2349929.stm

Experts hope to emulate Chinese Columbus
Plans are afoot to try and emulate the travels of a Chinese eunuch who is believed to have discovered America more than 70 years before Christopher Columbus......

[Oso]

funny, I was just reading this in "The Discoverers" by Boorstin.

his explorations were some of the last efforts made to explore outside of China before China withdrew upon itself.

dude had a 400+ foot ship...in 1400's.

also, China apparently introduced the idea of 'bulwarks' to ships...Boorstin says they may have gotten the idea from bamboo.

[David Jamieson]

recently a chinese fortress was found in the province of nova scotia in canada.

there is much debate because it rails against the common mindset of making little boxes to put everything into that is pervasive among academia.

anywho, there is one guy out there that is bucking this all too familiar trend with fuddy duddies who run the show in archaeology, geology, history etc etc.

here's the site about it: http://www.1421.tv/

enjoy, draw your own conclusions and keep in mind that pretty much everything you learned in history class that extend back more than 5 generations is likely total bullsh1t. :p

[SPJ]

Cheng He or Zheng He 郑和 (1371-1433)

His first name is peace or harmony He.

He was ordered to sail for 7 times from 1405 to 1433.

There are 3 stamps issued to commemorate his first voyage.

Here is a link;

Cheng He (http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html)

Sailor (http://planet.time.net.my/CentralMarket/melaka101/chengho.htm)

voyage (http://www.chinavoc.com/history/ming/zh.htm)

admiral (http://www.islamfortoday.com/zhenghe.htm)

:)

[Shaolinlueb]

i think there was an aritcle on this guy in news week. i read it. he went to malaysia, thailand, iraq area, and africa correct? he was the muslim correct?

[SPJ]

Yes.

stamps (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/28/content_3147711.htm)

:cool: