Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 1 | Page 52

The First Giraffe in China
Shanghai United International School WanYuan Campus, Xu, James - 9
My grandfather told me the story about Zheng He and how the first giraffe come to China, which
happened more than six hundred years ago.
It was the fourth time Zheng He came back from the Ming Treasure Voyage. He was the commander,
with a total of 27670 people on the ships. This time the giant fleets visited Java, Sumtara, Maldives, India
and the Persian Gulf. Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain and silk on the way, and received a
lot of novelties in return.
There was one gift which gave him a really deep impression. It was a giraffe! He never saw such a strange
animal and thought it was the tallest animal in the world. At first, there were two giraffes on the boat. The
giraffes were leashed to the keepers and were arranged in the cages. They were fed with leaves. The ship was
as big as a football field, and there were enough space for the distinguished guests. It was the first time for
the giraffes to travel on the sea.
Unfortunately, one giraffe died because of the scare, but the other one survived. After landing, Zheng He
led the giraffe to the imperial place. On the street people looked at the monster in a strange way. Yong Le
emperor looked the monster up and down carefully. Zheng He was nervous and worried about if the
emperor would like it or not. The animal had the head of a dragon, the antlers of a deer, the skin and scale
of a fish, the hooves of an ox and tail of a lion, and obviously a long, long neck. After a few minutes, Yong
Le emperor smiled and considered it to be a qilin (a kind of animal) which would bring good luck to the
country and people. Of course, the emperor gave him a big reward. After that, the first imported giraffe
lived in the imperial zoo in Nanjing.
Last Sunday, I went to Shanghai Zoo. I went to the giraffe area and I wondered to myself: are there any
later generations of the first imported giraffes from the Treasure Voyage in Ming Dynasty?