1. He was an eunuch. The young Cheng Ho was recruited to serve in the imperial palace when he was 12 or 13. The catch – all boys or men who served in the palace had to be castrated.
2. His descendents are now living in Thailand. But wait – wasn’t he a eunuch? “His brother gave him some children,” said Cheng Ho Cultural Museum assistant general manager Kok Kee Boon, showing us pictures of his descendents posing in front of a Chinese-style house in Thailand.
3. He was the great-great-greatgrandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a Persian who served in the Mongol empire as an administrator. He was also the governor of Yunnan province during the Yuan dynasty. Cheng Ho’s father was Persian, and his mother Chinese.
4. He received the name Cheng Ho (he was born Ma He) after he saved Emperor Yong Le’s life in the Battle of Cheng Province. He was named after the province in honour of his bravery.
5. One of his most incredible feats was to build an entire imperial fleet consisting of 208 vessels, including war ships, farm ships, horse ships and more. “They planted bean sprouts in barrels to prevent the crew from contracting beri-beri (an illness caused by a lack of vitamin B), which was deadly at the time,” said Kok.
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