Author: Chinese Discovered America

With Columbus Day just around the corner, a book published on Tuesday claims that a Chinese map showed the Western Hemisphere in some detail — decades before Columbus "discovered" the New World.

Author Gavin Menzies says an 18th century map found in a Beijing second-hand bookstore is a copy of a 1418 map charted by Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who led a fleet across the Pacific Ocean.

Menzies' book "Who Discovered America?" also asserts that the first inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere did not cross the Bering Strait from Asia, but were Chinese sailors who crossed the Pacific 40,000 years ago, according to a report on Mail Online.

Menzies first wrote about Zheng He's voyage in 2002, but his theories are not widely accepted by historians.

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