Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2019 | Page 4

Life Journey of a Great Man
Regents Primary School of Shenzhen, Chiu, Long Kwain Isaac - 8
The story took place during the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He was an outstanding navigator and he was revered
in the Chinese history. The purposes of the voyages were to establish trade and strengthen the relationship
between China and other countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Africa.
In Zheng’s lifetime, he made 7 journeys and visited more than 30 countries and areas in the span of 28 years.
He used compasses and ocean maps to help him. The farthest country he reached was Africa. He was able to
break the ice between China and other foreign countries successfully, building up the relationship of the two
nations, started the trade between the two places. Unfortunately he died in his last ocean journey and he
never came back to China, but his contribution and stories never end…
Indeed, there are a lot of interesting and funny things we can share from the 7 ocean journeys made by
Zheng. First, the fleets ranged from 48 to 317 ships, which was unimaginably massive in its scale in every
journey. Every day, all the people ate, drank and slept together. They built up a good relationship with one
another. During weekends, they had parties and they danced for fun too.
Second, in Zheng’s every voyage, he drew detailed maps and gathered information like the local climate and
cultures in the areas his fleet explored when he arrived at other countries and areas. When Zheng He first
met the people from Africa, they found their skin colour intriguing and different. This sentiment, however,
was echoed by the African, who thought the Chinese looked strange too. One thing they noticed was that
although the skin of the Africans were all black, their palms and teeth were white. Another interesting story
was their voyage to India. The Indians used their hands to eat, grabbed the food and put it directly into their
mouths, which the Chinese found strange and unhygienic. But the most interesting thing was that they also
brought back animals like giraffes and zebras that the Chinese had never seen before. When Zheng and his
team saw the giraffes, they screamed loudly as they were very scared. There were also elephants, lions, snakes
and leopards. In fact, there were a lot of different species of animals in Africa.
Third, during the 7 ocean journeys, Zheng’s fleet had met pirate fleets a few times in the ocean. Luckily the
soldiers on his fleet fought with them with their weapons and they were able to get back to China safely. I
have seen some movies about pirates before, although the story didn’t mention anything about the victory of
Zheng’s fleet, I dreamed of it myself and seemed like seeing all the action taken place. I think it must be
exciting and exhilarating, as they might use guns, or knives, or even Chinese Kung Fu.
I think Zheng He’s ocean journeys are good stories and could demonstrate good examples to encourage us
to broaden our horizon. Other than reading books, we can create the chances to experience different
adventures in life. People should try to travel and learn about different cultures all over the world, too.