Chinese Junk

Yesterday afternoon a Chinese Junk pulled up to the fuel jetty. She is the "Princess TaiPing", a replica of ancient Chinese ship craftsmanship built in mainland China . No bolts, screws or synthetic resin were used in her construction. She was officially launched in 2008, has LOA of 54 ft, beam of 15 ft, a molded depth of 5' 2" and has a registered weight of 35 tons. The purpose of the junk and its odyssey is to raise awareness around the world of Chinese boating history. The junk has visited Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, the east coast of the US. Presumably it passed through the Panama Canal because it is now on its way back to China. The original crew was composed of mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and a few Westerners. Today we met some of the crew and I had the privilege of formally meeting the captain, Nelson Liu. Arnold and I were invited on board for a visit but when we arrived we could see that it was lunch time (noodles) and we begged off promising to return later. They expect to be here for about 6 weeks.

Some references to this project are:

http://www.chinesevoyage.com/html/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=149739
chinesevoyage.com
http://1421.tv
csvsprincesstaiping.info

Enclosed are photos of the junk and her crew.