It has been a long and exciting history oftremendous cultural exchange between China andother countries. In terms of culture， economy，ideology， and personnel， these exchanges betweenChina and other countries can be dated back to thetimes of Qin and Han dynasties-directly or indirectly，by land or sea. The long-term and multi-faceted culturalexchange helps the world to understand more aboutChina and the rest of the world， enriching the commonwealth of mankind-both materially and spiritually.
The book series entitled Roads to the World offersthe most splendid stories in the entire history of Sino-foreign cultural exchange. We hereby offer them toforeign students learning the Chinese language， andto foreign readers who have a keen interest in Chineseculture. These stories depict important personalities，events， and phenomena in various fields of culturalexchange between China and other nations， and amongdifferent peoples. By reading the books， you mayunderstand China and Chinese civilization profoundly，and the close link between Chinese civilization andother civilizations of the world. The books highlight theefforts and contributions of Chinese people and Chinesecivilization in the world，s cultural interchange. Theyreflect mankind，s common spiritual pursuit and theorientation of values.
This book tells the story of Zheng He，s seven voyagesto the western oceans. Zheng He is a Chinese navigatorof the Ming Dynasty， who led a massive fleet and visitedmore than 30 countries and regions on the coast of theWest Pacific and the Indian Ocean from 1405 to 1433，half a century prior to the inception of the Great Eraof Navigation in Europe. His voyages strengthened thefriendly relations between China and the SoutheastAsia， South Asia， West Asia， and East African nationsin the Ming Dynasty， and conducted unprecedentedeconomic and cultural exchanges， achieving a host ofwin-win results.
前 言
中国与其他国家、民族之间的文化交流具有悠久而曲折的历史。在中国与外国之间，通过间接的和直接的、陆路的和海路的、有形的和无形的多种渠道，各种文化、经济、思想、人员方面的交流，可以上溯至秦汉时代，下及于当今社会。长期的、多方面的交流，增进了中国与其他国家、民族之间的了解，使人类的共同财富（物质的和精神的）更加丰富。
中外文化交流故事丛书（Roads to the World）的宗旨，是从中外文化交流的历史长河中，选择那些最璀璨的明珠，通过讲故事的方式，介绍给学习汉语的外国学生和对中国文化感兴趣的外国读者。这些故事描述中国与其他国家、民族在各个领域文化交流中的重要人物、事件和现象，以使外国读者能够更深入地理解中国，理解中国文明，理解中国文明与其他各文明之间的密切关系，以及中国人和中国文明在这种交流过程中所作出的努力和贡献，并尽力彰显人类共同的精神追求与价值取向。
本书讲述的是中国明代航海家郑和率领船队七次下西洋的故事。1405-1433年，在欧洲大航海时代到来的半个多世纪之前，郑和先后七次率领庞大的船队访问了西太平洋和印度洋沿岸的30多个国家和地区，加深了明代中国与东南亚、南亚、西亚、东非地区国家之间的友好关系，开展了规模空前的经济文化交流，取得了双赢的效果。