• the Joseon Korean official Choe Bu wrote a travel diary about his shipwrecked stay in Ming China that eventually became widely printed in Korea and Japan during the 16th century?

Facts on topics related to Choe Bu

Ming Dynasty

• eunuch admiral Yishiha is credited with constructing the only two Ming Buddhist temples ever built in modern-day Russia?
• Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
• Ming Dynasty general Gang Bing castrated himself and placed his severed organs under Emperor Yongle's saddle to avoid being accused of sexual improprieties?
• modern historians still debate on whether or not the Ming Dynasty of China had sovereignty over Tibet?
• the Joseon Korean official Choe Bu wrote a travel diary about his shipwrecked stay in Ming China that eventually became widely printed in Korea and Japan during the 16th century?

China

• China supported the Zimbabwe African National Union's fight against British rule in the country and recognized it right from independence day on April 18, 1980?
• China and Peru are expected to sign a free trade agreement during the 2008 APEC summit?
• China sought to strengthen Sino-Nepalese relations by supplying arms to the Nepalese monarchy against the country's Maoist insurgents?
• Chinese immigration to the Russian Far East has led to fears of Chinese irredentism in Russia, even though there are less than 35,000 Chinese in all of Russia?
• genderbending Chinese spy Shi Pei Pu, inspiration for M. Butterfly, had a sexual relationship with a French diplomatic worker who believed that he was a she and had given birth to their "son"?
• Imperial Japanese Army general Takaji Wachi attempted to create a collaborationist state in Guangxi, China in the mid 1930s?
• Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
• Japan's entomological warfare program in China during World War II used plague-infected fleas and cholera-coated flies to kill nearly 500,000 people?
• New Zealand currently has free trade agreements with Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Chile and China?
• Polish Jesuit and missionary Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki introduced the knowledge of logarithms to China in the mid-17th century?

Beijing

• Beijing Communist Party chief Li Ximing was a leading supporter of military action against the Tiananmen Square protests that resulted in the deaths of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people?
• French Sinologist Paul Pelliot was caught up in the Boxer Rebellion and trapped in the siege of Peking?
• British cyclist Simon Richardson won two gold medals and one silver at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing?
• Ireland's former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presented an episode of GAA television programme The Road to Croker when the usual host was at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing?
• a Cossack community existed in Beijing as early as 1685?
• Bailin Temple in Beijing was not pillaged by Anglo-French forces in 1860 or by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 because of the superstitious fear that Tibetan Buddhism inspired in the invaders?
• Beijing opera did not originate in Beijing but in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei?
• James Bennet was set to become Beijing correspondent for The New York Times when he instead was appointed the fourteenth editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly in March 2006?
• Meng Xuenong was sacked as mayor of Beijing during the SARS crisis, but has now made a comeback as governor of Shanxi province?
• Tim Morehouse, a member of the U.S. fencing team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, originally took up fencing in order to be excused from his high school gym class?

Qing Dynasty

• following the 1886 Seattle anti-Chinese riot the United States Congress paid the Chinese government $276,619.15 in compensation, but the victims received nothing?
• the erstwhile capital of the Qing Heilongjiang was built on the site of a town formerly belonging to the Ducher people, whose ethnic identification remains controversial?
• the Emin Minaret (pictured) in Turfan, Xinjiang, built in the 18th century during the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong, is the tallest minaret in China?
• the Ever Victorious Army, consisting of Chinese imperial forces led by a European officer corps, was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion?
• the first railway locomotive in China was in service for only 15 months between 1876 and 1877 before being purchased and deliberately destroyed by the ruling Qing Dynasty?

Shandong

• Lingyan Temple in Shandong, China features a nine-storey Song Dynasty pagoda, named the Pizhi Pagoda (pictured) from the Sanskrit word pratyeka?