A simulated picture of the formation of Zheng He's Fleet in voyage


Zheng He's portrait

　　A large fleet set off from the estuary of the Yangtze River in 1405. It was the fleet headed by Zheng He, Sanbao Eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, to start its maiden oceangoing voyage with 27,000 officers and men. In the next 28 years, the fleet headed by Zheng He braved stormy seas to pay goodwill visits to more than 30 countries in Southeast Asia, the India Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Ocean, the Red Sea and Africa. It was really an amazing feat which shocked the world, and raised the curtain on the world's great navigation age.

　　Zheng He's voyage was 87 years earlier than Columbus' discovery of the New Continent, 92 years earlier than Vasco da Gama's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, and 114 years earlier than Magellan's global circumnavigation.

　　Today, after a prolonged silence, China has sailed in the sea once again amid the mega-trend of reforms and opening up, the vast sea of world's economic globalization. It is a brand new beginning for China, a huge ship, to sail to the world!

　　Today, as the marine century starts to appear in the horizon and its outline becomes clearer and clearer, our celebration of the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's epic voyages is not only a retrospection and reflection of the history, but also an expression of our ardent desire and hope for today and the future.

　　By Wu Ruihu and Qian Xiaohu

　　(July 11, PLA Daily)