It’s our good fortune that Xu was at large in the golden age of Chinese travel, during the prosperous Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when commerce was booming and transportation was safer and more ...

Many of the artifacts came from the Zhengde period of the Ming dynasty, which spanned 1505 to 1521. But others may be older, dating back to the time of Emperor Hongzhi, who reigned from 1487 to ...