China beat Columbus to it, perhaps.

This sounds astonishing to me and perhaps to others. On the other hand, the Chinese were far ahead of the Western world in those days.
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China beat Columbus to it, perhaps.
Jan 12th 2006

An ancient map that strongly suggests Chinese seamen were first round the world.
It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called "The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft".

http://economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5381851