China's Great Armada

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The Esala Perahera procession is led by thousands of dancers wearing medieval court dress and traditional costumes.
This faded mural of Zheng He is painted on the wall of a park dedicated to him in his hometown of Kunyang, in Yunnan province...
Zheg's ships brought home at least one giraffe, a gift for the emperor.
Another precious Indonesian commodity, sulfur, is still mined from active volcanic vents in Ijen Volcano, East Java, Indonesia.
At the peak of the Datak Chachar festival, the procession of penitents, skin punctured with fishhooks, passes through Malacca.
Peak of Interest
The gravity-defying leaps and lightning quick swordwork of Kalaripayatta mimic the movements of animals.
Though many women in Yemen shroud themselves completely in black , colorful head scarves and veils (hejab) are often seen in ...
Sailing along Swahili
This 31,000-ton stone monument, commissioned by Emperor Zhu Dhi to honor his father, never stood and still lies where it was ...
A tourist stands on the edge of Hainan Island China's southernmost point, considered to be the "end of the civilized world," ...
Zheng He was born in a small farming village like this one along the shores of Diandi Lake in Yunnan, a 30 day walk from the ...
Growing up amidst the terraced rice paddies of the landlocked province of Yunnan, Zheng He went on to become China's greatest...
Rice planters work in Xiao, a Mongolian village like Zheng He's birthplace of Kunyang.
The people of Xiao are Muslim, as was Zheng He. Here a villager takes his ducks for a walk.
Zheng He, growing up among people like these villagers washing vegetables in an irrigation canal, did not seem destined for f...
Tobacco, here drying on poles after harvesting is the major cash-crop, other than rice in Yunnan.
Tobacco, here drying on poles after harvesting is the major cash-crop, other than rice in Yunnan.
In the Mongolian tradition elders stay at home to care for the children.
Yunnan, remains China's most ethnically diverse province, home to 25 different Ethnic groups. Zheng He was of Central Asian d...
The imperial tea gardens in Hangzhou still produce China's most precious teas. Zheng He helped spread the culture of tea arou...
A woman boils silk cocoons to separate the threads.
A silk farmer spreads lime over worms feeding on mulberry leaves.
Hangzhou still produces the finest silk cloth, one of Zheng He's most prized items and still in worldwide demand today.
Newly dyed cotton dries in the traditional way. Indigo dyeing was invinted by the Chinese in the Han dynasty.
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