[SunkenCiv]

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[Fred Nerks]

In his first book, 1421, Gavin Menzies argues that a huge Chinese fleet circumnavigated and charted the world years before the first great European voyages of discovery. The evidence for this comes in many different forms: from shipwrecks and ancient maps, to local peoples accounts and their DNA.
Explore Gavin’s website to find out more on this fascinating subject.

http://www.1421.tv/

Enjoyed the book.

[Tainan]

This has been pretty current news here in the Pac Rim. The sailings of 'Zhing' have inspired some building of sea-going vessels of his type - much much smaller of course - and several conferences on the related aspects of his trips.

His being a follower of Mohammad is not as big a note as his being a eunuch. That seems to get more press than his religion.
His fleet was massive and his ships were unbelievably large.
This guy traveled large.

[null and void]

Until about 1550, the most technologically advanced, educated, and wealthiest people on earth were the Chinese.

China was poised to take over the world.

The had gunpowder, iron, paper, the center pivot rudder and magnetic compass. Their trade empire extended as far as South Africa. They had explored far west as the Cape of Good Hope, and far enough east that Chinese style anchors from that period are still occasionally found in California coastal waters.

We would all be speaking Chinese right now, if the Mandarins hadn’t been freaked out about the new ideas flooding into China with the trade goods. In fear of losing control they so throughly crushed trade by regulations and taxes that it utterly vanished from history until recent rediscoveries of sunken Junks (as large as many modern freighters) forced a re-examnation of long forgotten records.

To this day it remains bureaucracy’s most stunning achievement...

(Although the Obama administration is giving it a run for its money)

[colorado tanker]

The size of Zhang's ships has been exaggerated to fanciful dimensions, approaching the size of modern cruise ships. This model is thought to be closer to the actual dimensions, which is still impressive for the day.