When we first arrived in Australia we went to Chatswood for haircuts. Walking there I was surprised at the number of Asiatic people around, including the kid with the Santa's helper hat playing Christmas carols on his saxophone. I thought "Wow, I've been to Sydney and seen the future and it's Chinese!" (Nothing racist implied, just an observation.)
Quite by chance I picked up a book in our hosts library entitled "1421 - the year China discovered the world". It's quite amazing and talks about large fleets sailing around the world years before Columbus and the Portuguese.
His web site - http://www.1421.tv/
mentions a second book in which he details evidence of another Chinese fleet that sailed to Italy in 1434 and effectively started what we know as the Renaissance.
What goes around, comes around .... or words to that effect.
posted by Harry at 7:02 am
1 Comments:
So all that fuss about Marco Polo and it was the Chinese themselves who brought tea, pasta, gunpowder, sugar, etc. to Europe. And couldn't be bothered staying because - since the Europeans hadn't been to the New World yet - they had little of interest to the Chinese! Like peppers, chocolate, etc.
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