Cai Wenjun/Shanghai Daily news

A 19-year-old Kenyan who is said to be a descendent of Chinese explorers has arrived in Jiangsu Province to help celebrate the 600th anniversary of the country's greatest ancient navigator, Zheng He.
Ceremonies will take place about an hour's drive from Shanghai in Taicang, from which Zheng's famous fleet headed down the Yangtze River to the East China Sea and beyond.
Mwamaka Sharifu is believed to be a descendent of one of Zheng's sailors who settled in Kenya after a shipwreck in the 15th century.
She arrived in Jiangsu last Friday and visited Shanghai over the weekend before returning to Taicang for celebrations that begin tomorrow.
Starting this year, China will set aside July 11 as the annual Zheng He Navigation Day.
On orders from a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) emperor, the eunuch Zheng commanded seven expeditions to the "Western Oceans" between 1405 and 1433. His fleets comprised more than 200 ships and crews numbered more than 20,000.
Zheng visited over 30 territories in Asia and Africa, including what is now Kenya. The expeditions helped spread Chinese culture and technology and fostered trade and goodwill.
Sharifu was born on a remote island along the Kenyan coast. Her family says her mother is a descendent of a Chinese sailor and her father is an African.
Chinaware that has been found along Kenya's coast and the fact that some locals exhibit Chinese features have led scholars to believe that some Kenyans are the offspring of one of Zheng's crews.
Sharifu was discovered when Chinese visited her village to study the cultural relics left by the ancient Chinese fleet.
She was invited to visit China as a special guest and was offered a scholarship to study at a Chinese university later this year.
Sharifu told Xinhua news agency that she was looking forward to going to college in China and plans to pursue a degree in medicine and then return home to help her fellow Kenyans.