For decades, the descendants of Zheng He were hesitant to acknowledge their relationship with the Ming Dynasty eunuch whose fleets sailed to much of the world 88 years before Christopher Columbus.

But today, as the 600th anniversary of the first major voyage of Zheng He's treasure ships dawns the people in his home town are going all out to make sure the world knows that Jinning gave birth to the great ocean navigator.

In spite of his achievements Zheng He's name is barely mentioned in either China's historic records or the chronicles of the countries his ships reached.

The descendants of his adopted son, a nephew, were also hesitant to acknowledge their origin initially out of embarrassment because he was a eunuch, and later when it would have been singularly impolitic to have done so.

"Because Zheng He was a eunuch most of us, his descendants feel reluctant to recognize that fact," said Zheng Enliang, 71, and the 18th generation descendant of mariner.

Zheng Enliang, who lives in Jinning County, worked with the provincial religious affairs office for some 40 years before retiring to devote all his energies into researching his ancestor.

"Until our relatives from Thailand the 15th generation came to visit us in 1995, we did not acknowledge publicly our identity," he explained.

Zheng Enliang first became mindful of his ancestry decades ago as an 8-year-old schoolboy.

"I was attending primary school and there was one chapter in my history book entitled 'Sanbao Eunuch's Maritime Odyssey'," he recalls. "I was curious about his surname, the same as mine, and after school I rushed home to ask my elders about it."

His grandfather Zheng Tiancai a 16th generation descendant told the curious schoolboy: "You are the 18th generation descendant of Zheng He."

The answer came as a surprise to Zheng, but not something he wanted to brag about. In fact, for most of his life he has tried very hard to eschew his ancestry and he took the name of Ma Guangbi.