So in the 1450s, there was this Chinese Admiral named Zheng He who made several voyages around the Pacific to "collect tribute" (read extort) from the people in Africa and India and Indonesia and so on. His ships were enormous - one scale recreation is 63.25 m long and his ships could have held a thousand men each - so they could have easily survived a voyage if they decided to sail east from China.
However, it is almost certain that Zheng He never reached America because no document of his voyages described a land east of the Pacific and no archaeologists ever found signs of his presence in America (no artifacts, no shipwrecks, no Pacific Natives with Chinese Ancestry, etc). Sadly, the Emperor decided to pursue isolationist policies soon after Zheng He's voyages and as such ordered his treasure ships burned. Because of this, China's potential was wasted and it was conquered three centuries later.
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@Recentbraininjury That's not right.
So in the 1450s, there was this Chinese Admiral named Zheng He who made several voyages around the Pacific to "collect tribute" (read extort) from the people in Africa and India and Indonesia and so on. His ships were enormous - one scale recreation is 63.25 m long and his ships could have held a thousand men each - so they could have easily survived a voyage if they decided to sail east from China.
However, it is almost certain that Zheng He never reached America because no document of his voyages described a land east of the Pacific and no archaeologists ever found signs of his presence in America (no artifacts, no shipwrecks, no Pacific Natives with Chinese Ancestry, etc). Sadly, the Emperor decided to pursue isolationist policies soon after Zheng He's voyages and as such ordered his treasure ships burned. Because of this, China's potential was wasted and it was conquered three centuries later.