The Most Famous

Explorers from China

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This page contains a list of the greatest Chinese Explorers. The pantheon dataset contains 498 Explorers, 6 of which were born in China. This makes China the birth place of the 13th most number of Explorers behind Ireland and Poland.

Top 6 Explorers

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chinese Explorers of all time. This list of famous Chinese Explorers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.

  1. #1
    Photo of Zheng He

    Zheng He

    1387 - 1433

    HPI 84.21140 langs

    Zheng He is most famous for his voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa in the 15th century.

  2. #2
    Photo of Xuanzang

    Xuanzang

    602 - 664

    HPI 78.9365 langs

    Xuanzang is most famous for the journey he took to India in search of Buddhist scriptures.

  3. #3
    Photo of Zhang Qian

    Zhang Qian

    200 BC - 114 BC

    HPI 71.9440 langs

    Zhang Qian is most famous for his expedition to the west and his discovery of the Silk Road.

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