via China Daily, 24 March 2021: Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any images of the said model fleet of Zheng He.
After more than 600 years, the fleet of legendary Chinese navigator Zheng He has been brought back to life by Fu Kunxiang, a craftsman from Yunnan province.
During the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Zheng’s fleet sailed to dozens of countries and regions in Asia and Africa, several decades before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas.
“There are no seas around my hometown in Yunnan, but it was the birthplace of Zheng He,” Fu said, sharing his inspiration behind creating the replicas.
In honor of Zheng’s accomplishments, Fu decided to create models of the ancient fleet in 2012. But the 55-year-old craftsman, who developed a passion for such models at the age of 13, had no idea how tough the work would be back then.
Since the design and building plans of the fleet had long been lost to history, Fu had to travel across the country visiting experts of ancient sailboats and manufacturing sites connected to Zheng’s fleet to form plans of his own.
Source: Craftsman replicates fleet of explorer | China Daily
