Word: ported
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...When a British engineer uncovered the stone in 1911 in the southern port of Galle, the 12-cm-thick slab, which was being used as a drain cover, caused a wave of excitement in the archeological world. Here was solid proof of Zheng He's odysseys. Today, the shoulder-high stone lies all but forgotten in a corner of the National Museum in Colombo. In Galle, a replica of the tablet - the town's sole record of Zheng He's passing - sits in the National Maritime Museum alongside pieces of the wrecked ships of later Dutch and Portuguese visitors. Although...
...trying to imagine the riches that lay on Africa's east coast. Six centuries earlier, Admiral Zheng He, with only the barest outline as a guide, did the same, only his imperial fleet was sailing to a mighty sultanate, at the peak of its power, not a faded port crumbling into the sea. Yet, despite the paint peeling from its once majestic, oceanfront villas, Mombasa and the surrounding strip of coastline still lure descendants of the seafaring eunuch with promises of unlimited possibility. It's in search of these latter-day adventurers that I, too, have arrived in Africa...
...place to settle. For me, its charms are antique: here the ruins of a once-mighty fort, there the shards of porcelain, reputedly from Zheng He's ships, that I find hidden in a dilapidated museum. As recently as the 1950s, seagoing freighters thronged to East Africa's largest port, off-loading boozy Western seamen and picking up African treasures. Today, as I stroll along the harbor, stevedores off-load shipments slowly - a languor born of chronic underemployment. Still, the Chinese come. "We Chinese can find business opportunities everywhere," grins Cen Haokun, one of three affable brothers...
...company COSCO, has doggedly set up shop. "The Americans and Europeans control the big markets," he says, "but we can build our fortunes in Africa." Recently, Yi traveled to the island of Madagascar for a delicate dEmarche: figuring out the right amount of cash needed to convince a recalcitrant port official to allow his ship to load goods. "Very tricky," he says, with a wink. "In Africa, there are no standard rules of business." A Chinese shipping empire is made on one remote isle at a time...
...Last year, Madagascar doled out 600 visas to Chinese workers who construct everything from new roads to button-down shirts. Chinese factory owners prefer to ship in their own countrymen because, as one boss put it: "They work harder for less money." Miss Xu hails from Nanjing, the river port from which Zheng He launched his fleet. She signed up for a three-year stint in Madagascar without knowing a thing about the Indian Ocean island. After toiling in a sweater factory for the full three years, she doesn't know much more. The 22-year-old lived with dozens...