Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 50

Zheng He and His Amazing Voyages
Creative Primary School, Cheng, Elizabeth - 10
Zheng He was one of the most successful and brave explorers in China’s Ming Dynasty. He led the largest fleet and
crew in the ancient world history, traveled on the enormous seas for 28 years, and made seven amazing voyages.
When Zheng He was young, he lost his grandfather during a dangerous voyage. Unfortunately, his dream of being a
brave explorer and a fighter came to a halt with nobody teaching and supporting him. But Zheng He didn’t give up and
he learned by himself all the skills. His determination was appreciated by the emperor and the captain of a large fleet that
would have great voyages abroad. The emperor decided to appoint Zheng He to command the voyages to the west, as
he wanted to build good relationships with other countries and get richer by trading expensive goods with them. The
emperor also gave Zheng He a very special ring that could bring him good luck.
After years of preparation, the day of the voyage had finally come. Zheng He and more than ten thousand crewmen
stepped abroad onto over sixty-three gigantic ships full of Chinese silk, porcelain, jewels and many more goods for
giving as gifts or trading with locals.
Three, Two, One……GO! The emperor shouted. The ropes tied to the ships were released and the ships drifted away
towards the beautiful seas. The crowd cheered and danced in circles while singing.
As the crowd cheered and happiness filled the ships, the sailors didn’t know that there was an uninvited guest abroad,
taking their every move under its vicious, cold-blooded eyes.
A few hours later, Zheng He looked at the sky, and he told all crewmen to turn south. It wasn’t very cloudy, so he was
able to observe the stars and figure out which way he should go. When the crewmen were sleeping, the sky started
raining cats and dogs. This woke all the crewmen and the uninvited guest and they became very angry. Then a huge
storm came. The ships swayed violently and it knocked a box of jewels into the sea. Zheng He and two crewmen tried
to use a fishing net to salvage some jewels, but they just managed to find a few. A crewman called Chen Yi jumped into
the sea to salvage the jewels but he drowned because the sea was rough.
As time passed by, the uninvited guest grew hungrier and hungrier. It locked its eyes on the crewmen. It went out of its
hiding place and jumped at them, followed by terrified screams. A tiger emerged on the deck, “Sir, It’s a tiger!” reported
a solider frantically. “Oh, no! What are we going to do with a horrible storm and a tiger on broad?” Zheng He heard
the men shouting, so he rubbed the ring super hard. He rubbed it so hard that his skin from his fingers peeled off!
All of a sudden, the sky turned bright blue and a rainbow appeared. The tiger became smaller and smaller and finally
turned into a little bunny. Chen Yi was alive and all of the fallen jewels magically flew back to the ships. It just took a
minute to make everything back to normal! It was a miracle! Zheng He was so thankful that he kissed the ring and
hugged his crewmen then he went back to his work. Turned out it wasn’t too bad after all!
After the terrible situation, Zheng He put his ring into a beautiful and secured box, then locked it up in case anyone
would steal it. All of the crewmen danced in circles and enjoyed some delicious food to celebrate their survival from the
storm and the tiger.
After a few days of sailing, Zheng He finally found a country called Rance, and the crewmen moored their ships besides
the shore. Rance was a wonderful country. It had lots of colorful and fancy houses, beautiful antiques and many more.
Although Rance was a beautiful country, its people were very rude. They shouted every time they talked, said rude
languages and even kicked someone on purpose! They also spoke in a weird language that none of the crewmen or
Zheng He could understand.
Like what Zheng He did in the storm, he rubbed his ring as hard as he could. He also prayed so the people wouldn’t be
so rude. Suddenly, the people stopped shouting and screaming and they started speaking Chinese, and they even said
hello to everyone walking past! So Zheng He and his crewmen were relieved and headed for the queen. The queen’s
castle was enormous.