To fulfil the Emperor’s ambitions, Zheng He assembled an armada of unheard-of proportions. The fleet had to be able to spend months, even years, away from berth and still be capable of sustaining the 28 000-strong force it carried. A variety of specialised ships were designed for this0 purpose. Most impressive were the mighty ‘treasure ships’, which, at more than 3000 tons displacement and 1000-passenger capacity, dwarfed the vessels of later European explorers like Da Gama, Columbus, Drake, and Magellan. By the end of his final voyage, Zheng He’s fleet had covered over 50 000 km, anchoring in the most famous ports of the time. He is thought to have travelled as far south as the Mozambique Channel, and some historians even claim that he rounded the Cape of Good Hope and broached the Americas. Journeying from China to India, from the Arabian sea to the east coast of Africa, Zheng He vastly outdid his Western contemporaries in their own Age of Exploration.