To the Gates of Fengtu

Sixty years before Columbus sailed, Ming China set sail on its final of seven great cycles of voyages of exploration. What happened next would shape everything that makes up the world we know todayHwa-Wei Lee (former director of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress) "... I could not help being amazed knowing that with Laurie having no previous knowledge of the Chinese language she was able to translate the most difficult Chinese writing into English. The novel by Luo Mao Deng is by no means easy to read and understand even for me. This explains well the reason why Luo's novel has not been translated into English before. Although "An Account of the Western World Voyages of the San Bao Eunuch" is a historical novel and is well known in China, it is not at all easy to read and translate because it consists of many imaginary supernatural characters and stories awfully hard to be translated into English in plain language. Laurie has done the best she could possibly have done to translate it into English. Her command of the English language enabled her to choose the most accurate expression in the translation."