Zheng He

About Zheng He

Zheng He was a Chinese mariner, explorers-for-kids">explorer, and fleet admiral during the early Ming Dynasty, who led massive treasure voyages between 1405 and 1433. Serving the Yongle Emperor, his seventh and final expedition reached as far as the east coast of Africa. His colossal fleets, some comprising over 27,000 men and hundreds of ships, were technological marvels of their time, solidifying his place as an explorer of immense historical significance, which is reflected in his #505 rank by MIT's Pantheon project.

In the modern digital age, this historical importance does not fully translate into online attention. Zheng He garnered 438K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. This level of attention puts him at an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, meaning his current web traffic is relatively commensurate with his historical standing among this dataset, unlike other figures who are vastly over- or under-represented. For comparison, contemporary explorer James Cook (#515 importance) received over three times as many views at 1.3M, though Francis Drake (#955 importance) garnered more views than Zheng He at 742K.

While his overall attention is stable with a modest +4.0% year-over-year increase, the quarterly momentum suggests a slight dip in interest, decreasing by -7% between Q1 and Q3 of 2025. This indicates that while the historical figure is recognized, the digital conversation around his monumental voyages is slightly waning over the course of the year.