[Palter]

Zheng He, etc. ping. Shrug, my bias, is getting in the way of comment. Independent verification, etc.

[muawiyah]

Admiral He is also known as Sinbad ~ in the West.

The Treasure Fleet is also known historically.

The Ming didn't maintain the fleet in China however. Instead, they built an overseas base at Penang (now an island off the coast of the Malaysian state of the same name).

The British later took over Penang from the local Sultan on the mainland and used it as a fortress protecting the Straits of Malacca for many years. (NOTE: It's at one end, more or less, and Singapore is at the other end).

The Treasure Fleet's trip to Africa resulted in the carriage of some giraffes and other distinctly African animals to the Chinese emperor.)

For a number of not very good reasons the Ming underwent a sudden change of heart, withdrew the Treasure Fleet, shut down its operations, and closed their coastline.

With that out of the way Europeans moved into the South Asian power vacuum and took over intercoastal trade ~

I would presume there's no doubt that the Chinese did this.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Rumors? I thought it was fairly well accepted that Cheng Ho made it to the West coast of Africa. Sounds like someone is trying to turn a standard story (they found a coin from the voyage) into something sensational.

Having said that, the story of his voyage and the size of the fleet and ships themselves are sensational.