Zheng He's Westward Voyages and the“Porcelain Route”——In Commemoration of the 600th Anniversary of Zheng He’s Westward Voyage

P eople in Southeast Asian, Arabian and Afri- can countries are quite fond of Chinese por-celain, especially those made in Jingdezhen. Forinstance, among the porcelain imported by Egyptin 2002, 96% were from China. The one whoestablished this close connection between Chi-nese porcelain and people in these areas is ZhengHe, who lived 600 years ago. This year marks the 600th anniversary ofZheng He’s westward voyage. He was a greatnavigator and diplomat of China in the Ming Dy-nas…