Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Junk Sunk


A shame to see that the replica 16th Century Chinese junk, the Princess Taiping, has sunk off Taiwan, one day short of completing its epic voyage to America and back. The Ming dynasty-style Princess Taiping was trying to prove that China's admiral, Zheng He, could have reached North America 600 years ago a la the claims in Gavin Menzies's much talked about 1421. While the claims in 1421 may or may not be accurate (and most people I talk to think it not likely except the Chinese government who love the idea) the Princess Taiping would have been an interesting experiment.
Indeed it still is as it did survive several storms during its 10-month voyage and was only sunk after being broken in two after it was rammed by a freighter just off Taiwan's coast. Given that there weren’t any large metal freighters around during the Ming Dynasty we can assume Zheng He didn’t worry about them too much or collide with too many. Of course the Princess Taiping has slightly better maps, technology etc.

4 comments:

Buy Cheap RS Gold said...

This particular publish may be a little bit of the truth to me.

http://www.maplestorybots.com/
http://rsgame2u.com/
http://catchwow.com/

Anonymous said...

When Ben informs RS GoldAmy Adrian hold a child, which prospects to disappointment. offered that Ben has found the point out of his / her and Adrian, Buy WOW GoldAmy reveals that for John.

Unknown said...

When Ben informs Amy Adrian hold a child, which prospects to disappointment. for the reason that Ben has found out the talk about of his / her and Adrian, Amy reveals that for John. Therefore, Ben is aggravated by more than Moody. Leo tells you how the specific Ricky Rabbit and also the two also choose to perform for his mother. Runescape Gold/buy rs gold/wow gold

Anonymous said...

Could be in complete manner great time; work on creating dog leashes some one of the most chic developer pet carriers all around.

Here are the most used, the majority cool luxury dog carriers on the market currently.

?Prada Doggy Carrier

Try some fine old classic fashionable pouch draw, look at Prada family dog hand bags. Most of these designer label pet carriers feature a lot of very much the same traits, all of these dog boots cause traditional