The book of Gavin Menzies has become a sensation in the world! She turned the idea of ​ ​ the era of great discoveries. Columbus and the great navigators who followed him were not pioneers. The world as we know it now has been discovered by the CHINESE! At the beginning of the 15th century, their fleets plowed the World Ocean, discovering new islands and lands. The grandest expedition, composed of four fleets, began in 1421. The last of the ships that survived in distant sea voyages returned to China in the fall of 1423. There are almost no records left where and where these ships went.