Many people regard China s potential as an economic powerhouse as a new phenomenon.
But a thousand years ago, Chinese merchants ruled the seas of Asia. Chinese shipbuilders began to build massive oceangoing junks, up to 300 feet long. They had a capacity of approximately 1,250 tons and were able to carry from five hundred to a thousand people. These ships, the technology for which partly drew on Arab models, were capable of undertaking very long-distance voyages and transporting vast cargoes. At about the same time, the Indians, Persians and Arabs who had dominated the seaborne trade became distracted by other concerns nearer to home, and the volume of foreign shipping reaching China diminished.