China Charlie

A weekly column about living in Dongguan, for those new to Dongguan, new to China, or anyone that likes a good story.  Written by an expat  who first came to Dongguan in 1987,  hopefully this series of articles will be both entertaining and informative.

Archives:

Welcome to China Charlie

Dongguan Driving Challenges

Fun With Air Travel in China

Vertical Speed Bumps

Language and Culture

Mobile Phones and Other Stuff

Karen Carpenter, Kenny G and the Chinese Water Torture… . .

Dan Gerous, where are you when we need  you?

Life in hotels in the “old days”, a “Moon Shot”, and the saga of the pink panties….

Was There Life After M*A*S*H

Camaraderie of Dong Guan in the “old days”.. . . 

Who's on First, China Style

Life at the Ramada/Guangzhou, Resting trucks, Dynamite, and other stuff

Is Dongguan becoming too civilized?

 Roadside Word Games, China Style

Thoughts on American Thanksgiving

The Traffic Food Chain

Hong Kong Sleigh Ride

Those Nuisance Messages

Will the Grinch Steal Christmas?

If the Chinese could discover North America, why do they get lost in Houjie ?? ?  ?  ?

About 3 years ago, there was a book published, that was written by a British ex-submarine commander presenting the idea that a fleet of Chinese Junks visited North America a little over 50 years before “Ole Chris” Columbus planted the Spanish Flag in the Caribbean Islands.

According to the book, a large fleet of junks departed Chinas heading east, and after a conversation with a Portuguese guy named Nico da Conti in Calcutta, the fleet commander sailed his ships around Cape of Good Hope of Africa, into the Atlantic Ocean and eventually down the East Coast of the North and South American continents. According to the book, they also sailed on around Cape Horn, into the Pacific, and back to China, circumnavigating the globe for the first time.

Believe it or not, there’s been some debate over the terminology associated with this.

While the book refers to this as a “discovery”, some folks feel that without a claim and any colonization, this was not a true “discovery”.

Anyway, recently I was with 3 guys of Asian ancestry that obviously were not descendents of, or even remotely related in any way to any of the crew members of this early exploration. I was having a test run of a new product performed in a factory in the southern part of Houjie, and while we were waiting for a timed process to finish, I asked if we could visit a sister factory nearby that was doing some component work for the new product being tested.

The 3 of us (one guy from the factory, an assistant of mine and I) jumped in the car with my temporary driver. In retrospect, I should have guessed that we were headed for trouble when the driver and the factory guy seemed to be a little confused over the best route to take.

Basically, the trip went “down hill” from there.

There seemed to be even more confusion at each intersection, usually with people pointing opposite directions and speaking in a language that I couldn’t understand (and, I’m not sure anyone in the car understood). The third time the factory guy got “on the phone” with someone (I assume asking directions), and we started making a “U Turn”, I said “enough is enough” (although no one else understood me). I saw some ”landmarks” I  recognized ahead, and pointed toward an intersection and said “idsado” (Gwailoh for straight ahead). When we reached the intersection, I told the driver “yopian” (Gwailoh for turn right) and we headed back for where we started. Eventually, we did find our way back to the original factory, reviewed the results of the test run and “called it a day”.

Getting back to the book, even if Chinese junks sailed the coasts of the western hemisphere in 1421, there seems to be proof that a fleet of Nordsmen beat them to North America by roughly 34 years.

Personally, I don’t “give a rip” if it was a group of Vikings lead by Leif Erickson landing on the shores of Labrador and Cape Cod in early 1387, the Chinese in 1421, or Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean1492, that first visited North America. The fact is that the Continents they visited and lead the way to for exploration and settlement of are the homes of some of the greatest and most generous nations of today’s world. One is also the birth place of yours truly (but no one seems too anxious to acknowledge that).

O.K., if the historical information in this wasn’t enough, Christopher Columbus commanded a Spanish Fleet of 3 ships, but wasn’t from Spain. What country did ‘Ole Chris hail from ?

Theanswer? See the next installment of China Charlie…. . . .

Until next time “Y’all have a rice week now