Treasure Fleet The Epic Voyage of Zheng He

Between 1405 and 1433 Admiral Zheng He of China led seven epic voyages to more than 30 countries including Sri Lanka India Indonesia Malaysia Vietnam Kenya and Tanzania The admiral and his crew gathered knowledge and wealth from Indochina to Africa for Chinas Ming empire These voyages were the biggest naval expeditions mounted at the time Zheng He was bigger than life and could have changed the course of history But after the seven voyages he and his Treasure Fleet were forgotten by China and the world for six hundred years National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita sets sail to discover why To celebrate the 600th anniversary of Zheng Hes maiden exploration voyage Michael Yamashita traveled over 10000 miles from Yunnan in China to Africas Swahili coast taking over 40000 pictures for the feature story on this great explorer published in the July 2005 edition of National Geographic