Tuesday, January 17, 2006

My Viking trumps your Chinese eunuch


As the Chinese continue to try to bolster their historically wounded ego, (Russia call your office), they are starting to almost sound like the old Soviets, i.e. "We invented it first..."

They are trotting out their very brave and Sailor's sailor eunach Zheng He again. He did great things on his own - but they want him to be mo' bet'tah.
A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.
Fine. If that is your standard, my Nordic friends with funny helmets beat you. Try again.

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