Zheng He and His Voyages
2 min readZheng He or Cheng Ho in Wade-Giles（1371-1435），was a famous Chinese mariner and explorer who made the voyages collectively referred to as the“Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean”or”Zheng He to the Western Ocean”，from 1405 to 1433.
The Western Ocean”refers to the Asian and African places he explored，including:Southeast Asia，Sumatra，Java，Ceylon，India，Persia，the Persian Gulf，Arabia，the Red Sea as far north as Egypt，and Africa as far south as the Mozambique Channel.
The number of his voyages vary depending on method of division，but he exploredat least seven times to”The Western Ocean”with his fleet.The fleet comprised 30000 men and seventy ships at its height.He brought back to China many trophiesand envoys from more than thirty kingdoms-including King Alagonakkara of Ceylon，who came to China to apologize to the Emperor.
Biography
Zheng He was a eunuch and close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of China，the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty.His original name was Ma Sanbao，born in Yunnan.
The name Zheng He was given by the emperor.His missions were impressive demonstrations of organizational capability and technological might，but did not lead to significant trade，since Zheng He was an admiral and an official，not a merchant.Drawn by Shen Du，a giraffe brought from Africa in the twelfthyear of Yongle（1414 AD）.In 1424 the Yongle Emperor died.His successor，the Hongxi，decided to curb influence of the eunuchs at court.Zheng He made one more voyage under the Xuande Emperor，but after that，Chinese treasure ship fleets ended.
