1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:18,693 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:18,693 --> 00:00:23,212 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:23,212 --> 00:00:36,847 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:36,847 --> 00:00:41,585 Recent archaeological discoveries in the People's Republic of China are changing America's 5 00:00:41,585 --> 00:00:44,884 concept of its own history. 6 00:00:44,884 --> 00:00:50,002 From ancient historical records we hear of a Buddhist monk, Hu Shen, who by his own 7 00:00:50,002 --> 00:00:58,559 written account appears to have landed on the American continent in 458 AD. 8 00:00:58,559 --> 00:01:02,357 Did the trail they took lead them to Central America? 9 00:01:02,357 --> 00:01:09,435 Now, new discoveries off the coast of California may furnish proof that America was discovered 10 00:01:09,435 --> 00:01:13,793 by Chinese explorers over a thousand years before Columbus. 11 00:01:20,511 --> 00:01:29,348 The rocky coast of Cape Mendocino in northern California is one of the places where some 12 00:01:29,348 --> 00:01:36,745 scientists believe Chinese explorers landed on our shores many years before Columbus. 13 00:01:36,745 --> 00:01:43,822 Larry Pearson, a marine archaeologist, searches beneath the seas for evidence of such voyages. 14 00:01:43,822 --> 00:01:48,421 Larry is one of the few respected scientists who believe there is an element of truth to 15 00:01:48,421 --> 00:01:53,499 be found in ancient Chinese tales. 16 00:01:53,499 --> 00:01:58,677 The Chinese memorialize their legends by staging historical pageants. 17 00:01:58,677 --> 00:02:04,015 One story tells of a skillful magician who when sent on a secret journey by his emperor 18 00:02:04,015 --> 00:02:12,892 Qi Shuang Di returned with reports of a land far away across a vast ocean. 19 00:02:12,892 --> 00:02:21,089 Representing his report, he stated that it was a land of mighty rivers and mountains. 20 00:02:21,089 --> 00:02:28,846 Here strange people dwelt whose gods granted them the gift of the elixir of life. 21 00:02:28,846 --> 00:02:34,524 He pleaded for this gift of immortality for his master, but it was denied him. 22 00:02:34,524 --> 00:02:38,802 He claimed it could only be parted with in exchange for rich gifts. 23 00:02:39,362 --> 00:02:46,200 A thousand noblemen and beautiful maidens were required together with skilled craftsmen. 24 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:52,957 Excited by the prospect of eternal life, the emperor gave leave to proceed. 25 00:02:52,957 --> 00:02:57,915 The magician gathered together a large group capable of starting a new colony. 26 00:02:57,915 --> 00:03:07,752 They built the necessary ships, the fleet set sail, and was never heard from again. 27 00:03:07,792 --> 00:03:13,430 Ten thousand miles away and two thousand years later, Larry Pearson travels the coast 28 00:03:13,430 --> 00:03:17,828 of Northern California to investigate Indian legends. 29 00:03:17,828 --> 00:03:24,666 He hopes to find tales confirming contact between Asia and pre-Columbian America. 30 00:03:24,666 --> 00:03:29,824 His first stop is the American Indian Center at Humboldt University where he consults with 31 00:03:29,824 --> 00:03:34,102 Indian expert Bobby Lake. 32 00:03:34,102 --> 00:03:39,620 The Pit River Indians and the Pomo Indian Tribal Group of Northwestern California have 33 00:03:39,620 --> 00:03:45,898 an ancient myth or legend or folklore that talks about a giant bridge which went from 34 00:03:45,898 --> 00:03:52,855 this area across the ocean to another race of people who they felt or thought or believed 35 00:03:52,855 --> 00:03:55,534 were Indians, but their skin color was different. 36 00:03:55,534 --> 00:03:57,893 It was more yellowish. 37 00:03:57,893 --> 00:04:04,051 The way the old legend goes is the world was purified by water and everything on earth 38 00:04:04,051 --> 00:04:09,449 was destroyed and many of the high priests and religious leaders knew this was going 39 00:04:09,449 --> 00:04:14,248 to happen so they gathered the people together and they moved up high to the high tops of 40 00:04:14,248 --> 00:04:15,807 the mountains. 41 00:04:15,807 --> 00:04:22,005 And while they were up there, some of the visionaries or prophets began to see another 42 00:04:22,005 --> 00:04:26,003 race of people who looked like Indians but were yellow skinned. 43 00:04:26,003 --> 00:04:31,921 So somehow or another, you might call it mental telepathy, they started to build a bridge from 44 00:04:31,921 --> 00:04:36,599 this part of the continent while that other race of people started to build a bridge from 45 00:04:36,599 --> 00:04:41,797 the other continent and somewhere in the middle of the ocean they linked up together and 46 00:04:41,797 --> 00:04:44,037 they communicated with each other. 47 00:04:44,037 --> 00:04:48,315 And what really signaled all of this was the rainbow. 48 00:04:48,315 --> 00:04:54,473 As the yellow race of people left and they were going back, a rainbow came up and they 49 00:04:54,473 --> 00:05:00,031 said someday this physical bridge will be gone but remember us, our brother, because 50 00:05:00,031 --> 00:05:04,509 the rainbow will always be there. 51 00:05:04,509 --> 00:05:09,787 Nearby where the Klamath River meets the sea, Larry seeks further information from the local 52 00:05:09,787 --> 00:05:11,467 Indians. 53 00:05:11,467 --> 00:05:16,425 Florence Shaughnessy has lived beside the Klamath River all her life. 54 00:05:16,425 --> 00:05:21,423 We're called the Urock people but in Indian we're called Pooleek La. 55 00:05:21,423 --> 00:05:30,500 We are the people that walk by the ocean. 56 00:05:30,500 --> 00:05:34,938 To add to the evidence of Asian influence, there are legends of shipwrecks along the 57 00:05:34,938 --> 00:05:37,937 northwest coast. 58 00:05:37,937 --> 00:05:44,095 The story was that they found a part of Chinese junk along the coast near Tillamook, Oregon 59 00:05:44,095 --> 00:05:50,133 and so they had the divers go down and they did find that it was old, old, old, so they 60 00:05:50,133 --> 00:05:55,571 figured that the Chinese came over, had caught in a storm, probably old, perished or maybe 61 00:05:55,571 --> 00:06:01,369 some swam ashore and they say that some of those Chinese must have survived and then 62 00:06:01,369 --> 00:06:07,766 they went inland and there was Indians living all around the coast there that they intermarried 63 00:06:07,766 --> 00:06:14,044 there because some of the Indians from certain parts of Oregon or Flantide and their skin 64 00:06:14,044 --> 00:06:18,122 is just a little different color than the bronze Indians. 65 00:06:18,122 --> 00:06:23,081 The Japanese current flows eastward along the 40th parallel then merges with other currents 66 00:06:23,081 --> 00:06:25,640 and reaches the coast of California. 67 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:31,118 There it splits, one half flowing north to Alaska, the other moving south along the coast 68 00:06:31,118 --> 00:06:32,717 of Mexico. 69 00:06:32,717 --> 00:06:37,595 At the division, a churning occurs which is so furious that many vessels riding upon 70 00:06:37,595 --> 00:06:50,231 it have been dashed to splinters. 71 00:06:50,231 --> 00:06:55,349 These rocky headlands such as the Point of Land behind me, Trinidad Head on the northern 72 00:06:55,349 --> 00:07:00,587 coast of California are the kinds of obstructions, seafarers traveling this coast would have 73 00:07:00,587 --> 00:07:01,907 encountered. 74 00:07:01,907 --> 00:07:07,544 These sites of course are historically known as very high hazard areas, graveyards of ships, 75 00:07:08,304 --> 00:07:13,422 it is just such a place on the coast that you'd expect to find the highest likelihood 76 00:07:13,422 --> 00:07:19,420 of the remains of ancient craft, particularly the Japanese and Chinese vessels that we know 77 00:07:19,420 --> 00:07:23,659 now have been here in pre-Columbian times. 78 00:07:23,659 --> 00:07:28,737 In response to a letter, Larry has come to examine these odd stones discovered by Dick 79 00:07:28,737 --> 00:07:34,415 Young, a fisherman who brought them up in his nets off Cape Mendocena. 80 00:07:34,415 --> 00:07:39,813 It is known that early Chinese seamen drilled holes in large stones and used them for ship 81 00:07:39,813 --> 00:07:41,652 anchors. 82 00:07:41,652 --> 00:07:46,810 Many similar stones have been found in Californian and Mexican waters, but most turn out to be 83 00:07:46,810 --> 00:07:49,329 naturally formed. 84 00:07:49,329 --> 00:07:54,727 In the case of these two, they're apparently formed in the deep ocean floor. 85 00:07:54,727 --> 00:08:01,725 These particular stones are natural, the nucleus could have been a whale bone, a whale vertebrae, 86 00:08:02,205 --> 00:08:08,922 but the shape of the hole, the ridges inside, there is no taper here, there are subtle nuances 87 00:08:08,922 --> 00:08:12,841 in the hole itself to lead me to believe that they are indeed natural formations rather 88 00:08:12,841 --> 00:08:17,319 than being man-made. 89 00:08:17,319 --> 00:08:21,078 As a scientist, Larry is used to such setbacks. 90 00:08:21,078 --> 00:08:26,316 The real frustration is not occasional misleading evidence found along the shore, but the fact 91 00:08:26,316 --> 00:08:30,394 that China lies across 7,000 miles of ocean. 92 00:08:30,394 --> 00:08:37,392 Further, China's doors have been closed until recently to western scientists. 93 00:08:43,310 --> 00:08:47,588 On a recent trip to the People's Republic of China, the in search of crew filming in 94 00:08:47,588 --> 00:08:53,026 a rural area found some large old stone rollers on a farm. 95 00:08:53,026 --> 00:08:57,225 We were interested to learn that these rollers had often been used as ship's anchors in 96 00:08:57,225 --> 00:09:00,703 early times. 97 00:09:00,703 --> 00:09:05,901 They are still used by some Chinese river boats today, ships of ancient design called 98 00:09:05,901 --> 00:09:06,901 junks. 99 00:09:06,901 --> 00:09:12,899 They are basically river vessels used by fishermen for centuries. 100 00:09:12,899 --> 00:09:19,896 In the famed Peking Museum, we found evidence that much larger seagoing junks once existed 101 00:09:20,216 --> 00:09:22,375 in the distant past. 102 00:09:22,375 --> 00:09:26,174 The scouting of a giant sailing vessel has been uncovered. 103 00:09:26,174 --> 00:09:32,052 A fleet of ships of such size could have carried thousands of passengers. 104 00:09:32,052 --> 00:09:37,330 Remnants of this huge rudder indicate the ship was hundreds of feet long. 105 00:09:37,330 --> 00:09:44,327 A modern Chinese artist depicts how a fleet of these huge junks would have looked. 106 00:09:44,327 --> 00:09:51,325 Marco Polo told of long sea voyages made by the Chinese as they traded with such faraway 107 00:09:53,764 --> 00:09:58,842 places as India and Persia, but these were coastal trips. 108 00:09:58,842 --> 00:10:06,439 Could Chinese junks have survived long voyages in the open Pacific? 109 00:10:06,439 --> 00:10:12,077 To prove such a voyage possible, journalist Kuno Kanobal and a group of fellow adventurers 110 00:10:12,077 --> 00:10:16,836 built a sailing junk as close as possible to ancient design. 111 00:10:16,836 --> 00:10:19,755 They named it the Tai Ki. 112 00:10:19,755 --> 00:10:25,712 Their plan to catch the Japanese current to the North American coast, then southward to 113 00:10:25,712 --> 00:10:29,351 Central America. 114 00:10:29,351 --> 00:10:34,349 Despite calms and storms, all went reasonably well, until midway. 115 00:10:34,349 --> 00:10:39,707 They discovered the ship was under attack by thousands of sea worms, burrowing into the 116 00:10:39,747 --> 00:10:45,305 wood and undermining the hull. 117 00:10:45,305 --> 00:10:52,303 It was then that the typhoon hit. 118 00:11:09,696 --> 00:11:16,694 The ship increasingly took on water, filling the hole. 119 00:11:23,811 --> 00:11:30,809 To stay afloat, the crew pumped frantically day and night in mountainous seas. 120 00:11:33,848 --> 00:11:37,766 Helpless when the rudder broke, they sent out an urgent message from their sputtering 121 00:11:37,766 --> 00:11:44,764 radio and waited. 122 00:11:47,803 --> 00:11:50,801 Their message had been heard. 123 00:11:50,801 --> 00:11:57,799 First, a coast guard plane from Juno arrived, dropping supplies. 124 00:11:58,918 --> 00:12:03,437 Shortly thereafter, they were picked up by a freighter from which they watched their dream, 125 00:12:03,437 --> 00:12:10,114 the Tai Ki, lurch aimlessly away, lost over the horizon. 126 00:12:10,114 --> 00:12:15,552 In spite of shipworms and storms, they did pass the midpoint in their journey, proving 127 00:12:15,552 --> 00:12:22,270 that ancient junk were capable of lengthy voyages in the open sea. 128 00:12:22,270 --> 00:12:26,868 There are other discoveries which could prove that early Chinese explorers did complete such 129 00:12:26,868 --> 00:12:30,427 voyages a thousand years before Columbus. 130 00:12:34,426 --> 00:12:40,423 Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in his flagship, the Santa Maria, in 1492 131 00:12:42,303 --> 00:12:44,782 and discovered America. 132 00:12:44,782 --> 00:12:47,741 Was Columbus the first? 133 00:12:47,741 --> 00:12:53,059 It is generally accepted that the Vikings acknowledged to be daring seafarers predated 134 00:12:53,059 --> 00:12:55,118 Columbus here. 135 00:12:55,118 --> 00:13:00,976 Many monuments still remain as possible proof of their settlements. 136 00:13:00,976 --> 00:13:05,774 Known walls of Phoenician design found in New Hampshire indicate that they too might 137 00:13:05,774 --> 00:13:08,173 have been early visitors. 138 00:13:08,173 --> 00:13:12,732 This theory is strengthened by writings found at the site that some experts believe to be 139 00:13:12,732 --> 00:13:16,650 Phoenician. 140 00:13:16,650 --> 00:13:20,729 To argue who discovered America first is to ignore the fact that it has been populated 141 00:13:20,729 --> 00:13:23,128 for hundreds of thousands of years. 142 00:13:23,128 --> 00:13:27,446 More important, we should examine what effects visitors from other lands have had on early 143 00:13:27,446 --> 00:13:29,805 Indian civilizations. 144 00:13:29,805 --> 00:13:35,563 About 1500 years ago, a sudden cultural surge occurred in Central America which has mystified 145 00:13:35,563 --> 00:13:38,482 the world of archaeology for many years. 146 00:13:38,482 --> 00:13:45,120 Some believe this may have been brought about by contact from China. 147 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:52,517 The Buddhist religion was flourishing in China in the 6th century. 148 00:13:52,517 --> 00:13:57,915 In a monastery in Shenshi province, these statues stand guard over the records of Buddhist 149 00:13:57,915 --> 00:14:00,874 history. 150 00:14:00,874 --> 00:14:06,752 We learned from these stone tablets that in 570 AD, several monks set sail across the 151 00:14:06,752 --> 00:14:12,190 Great Sea to seek new converts to the Buddhist faith. 152 00:14:12,190 --> 00:14:17,548 The official account of their voyage states that the monk Hushen and his companions sailing 153 00:14:17,548 --> 00:14:22,546 eastward came upon the shores of a strange far away land. 154 00:14:22,546 --> 00:14:28,744 The distance logged was 20,000 leans or about 7,000 nautical miles. 155 00:14:28,744 --> 00:14:35,502 This would place them on the coast of Southern California. 156 00:14:35,502 --> 00:14:40,900 The account does not record their feelings as they cautiously entered a strange new land, 157 00:14:40,900 --> 00:14:46,058 only that they made their way inland through forests, across mountains and deserts for 158 00:14:46,058 --> 00:14:52,055 350 miles. 159 00:14:52,055 --> 00:15:05,251 At last, they stood on the rim of a great canyon, banded with many colors. 160 00:15:05,251 --> 00:15:09,689 Could they have been describing the Grand Canyon? 161 00:15:09,689 --> 00:15:15,367 The account continues that at the bottom of the canyon, far below, there was a river winding 162 00:15:15,367 --> 00:15:22,324 among boulders. 163 00:15:22,324 --> 00:15:27,043 Making their way south, they crossed a great desert where the inhabitants ate the purple 164 00:15:27,043 --> 00:15:32,081 fruit of a strange tree they called the Fusang tree. 165 00:15:32,081 --> 00:15:35,440 Was this a cactus? 166 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:42,517 Finally, they came through dense jungles, arriving some believe in Central America, just 167 00:15:42,517 --> 00:15:48,875 prior to the great cultural flowering of the Mayan civilization. 168 00:15:48,875 --> 00:15:53,873 That the learned monk Hushen could have brought the Mayans advanced knowledge from China is 169 00:15:53,873 --> 00:15:59,071 discussed by Dr. James Moriarty of the University of San Diego. 170 00:15:59,071 --> 00:16:07,228 I hold with many archaeologists that Central American and Mexican cultures, early ones, 171 00:16:07,228 --> 00:16:12,546 may very well have been influenced by some type of Asian contact. 172 00:16:12,546 --> 00:16:18,544 My reasons for this are not unique and they are found in the works of many who since the 173 00:16:18,544 --> 00:16:23,542 1800s, late 1800s, have worked on these problems. 174 00:16:23,542 --> 00:16:28,580 During the Han dynasty, a certain type of bull with certain kinds of feet was a prominent 175 00:16:28,580 --> 00:16:30,220 feature of that culture. 176 00:16:30,220 --> 00:16:35,058 You will find similar bulls in some Mexican cultures. 177 00:16:35,058 --> 00:16:41,376 You will find Jade work, which has been much discussed by some of my colleagues, which 178 00:16:41,376 --> 00:16:47,613 certainly shows Chinese influence and possibly even some pieces that are of Chinese origin. 179 00:16:47,613 --> 00:16:51,612 In China, we were permitted into the Forbidden City. 180 00:16:51,612 --> 00:16:58,370 The former Imperial Palace is now a museum, housing special relics of the past. 181 00:16:59,369 --> 00:17:04,687 We were allowed to film the ancient Jade soldier. 182 00:17:04,687 --> 00:17:10,085 The soldier's body in burial had been completely encased. 183 00:17:10,085 --> 00:17:16,483 It is significant that Jade burial masks of the same period have been found in Mayan 184 00:17:16,483 --> 00:17:24,760 excavations. 185 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:29,918 In China, we also filmed many serpent heads, only to find identical figures in Central 186 00:17:29,918 --> 00:17:33,917 America. 187 00:17:33,917 --> 00:17:38,595 The Mayans believed these serpents to be the representation of the man-god who brought 188 00:17:38,595 --> 00:17:41,594 them knowledge. 189 00:17:41,594 --> 00:17:47,152 Is it possible that this contact with Chinese culture accounts for the Mayans' remarkable 190 00:17:47,152 --> 00:17:49,791 knowledge of astronomy? 191 00:17:49,791 --> 00:17:58,708 Or mere coincidence that this Mayan calendar is similar to Chinese calendars of the period? 192 00:17:58,708 --> 00:18:03,506 In many Mayan museums, we found startling items. 193 00:18:03,506 --> 00:18:11,463 There were never any elephants in America, yet this Mayan relief depicts one. 194 00:18:11,463 --> 00:18:17,101 The Mayan face had a distinctive shape, yet occasionally faces are found that appear to 195 00:18:17,101 --> 00:18:19,460 be Chinese. 196 00:18:19,460 --> 00:18:25,458 The Mayan god of happiness is unmistakably Chinese. 197 00:18:25,458 --> 00:18:29,736 The image of this bearded man continues to be a mystery. 198 00:18:29,736 --> 00:18:33,255 It is known that Indians do not have facial hair. 199 00:18:33,255 --> 00:18:44,171 Who then was this oriental man found in Mayan excavations? 200 00:18:44,171 --> 00:18:49,569 Mayan discoveries from the ocean floor may provide answers to some of these questions. 201 00:18:49,569 --> 00:18:54,047 It is fortunate that these divers off for Donald Beach, California were alert enough 202 00:18:54,047 --> 00:18:57,406 to recognize something unusual. 203 00:18:57,406 --> 00:19:04,963 Bob Maistrel and Wayne Baldwin have discovered what are believed to be Chinese stone anchors. 204 00:19:04,963 --> 00:19:09,122 We were out scuba diving one day, and the water was dirty and we started looking for 205 00:19:09,122 --> 00:19:10,881 other things other than lobsters. 206 00:19:10,881 --> 00:19:16,039 I noticed this stone that had an indentation in it, and I started scraping the little rocks 207 00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:21,238 and shells off, and I noticed the hole got deeper and deeper and deeper, and so I lifted 208 00:19:21,238 --> 00:19:25,836 the stone up and it had a perfect hole in it. 209 00:19:25,836 --> 00:19:29,635 Realizing that they may have found something unique, they decided to bring the stones to 210 00:19:29,635 --> 00:19:38,711 the surface for further examination. 211 00:19:38,711 --> 00:19:43,110 We found five more, raised them and brought them into the shop. 212 00:19:43,110 --> 00:19:47,428 This large stone here that you see weighs over a thousand pounds. 213 00:19:47,428 --> 00:19:52,946 As we were raising it, it just broke the surface and then itself broke in half and dropped 214 00:19:52,946 --> 00:19:54,625 to the bottom. 215 00:19:54,625 --> 00:19:58,944 Two questions must be asked regarding any of these possible anchors. 216 00:19:58,944 --> 00:20:02,862 First, are they from China? 217 00:20:02,862 --> 00:20:06,381 And second, how old are they? 218 00:20:06,381 --> 00:20:12,659 Of all the unusually shaped stones that have been found, there was only one example which 219 00:20:12,659 --> 00:20:14,178 was datable. 220 00:20:14,178 --> 00:20:18,577 That would be the stone found at the Patanus Garment site. 221 00:20:18,577 --> 00:20:22,495 Samples were sent to Dr. Wang, who was a Chinese geologist. 222 00:20:22,495 --> 00:20:29,333 His analysis and comparative studies with known ancient quarries on the coast of China 223 00:20:29,333 --> 00:20:33,931 proved conclusively that the materials hadn't come from China. 224 00:20:33,931 --> 00:20:38,769 The datability was in the form of a manganese concretion that had achieved a three millimeter 225 00:20:38,769 --> 00:20:40,689 thickness on this stone. 226 00:20:40,689 --> 00:20:47,526 The rule of thumb rate for manganese concretion is about a thousand years per millimeter. 227 00:20:47,526 --> 00:20:54,044 Allowing a 50% error, this stone is still obviously pre-Columbian. 228 00:20:54,044 --> 00:21:00,961 It has been established to Larry Pearson's satisfaction that at least one of the stones 229 00:21:00,961 --> 00:21:05,160 is from China and is more than a thousand years old. 230 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:09,638 However, he still seeks more definitive answers. 231 00:21:09,638 --> 00:21:14,636 Answers that he believes will be found in the waters of the Pacific, proving the presence 232 00:21:14,636 --> 00:21:22,553 of Chinese explorers. 233 00:21:22,553 --> 00:21:27,312 The possible presence of Chinese explorers on our shores does not negate in any way the 234 00:21:27,312 --> 00:21:30,710 contribution made by Christopher Columbus. 235 00:21:30,710 --> 00:21:35,149 This is still the honor of founding the first continuing settlement of foreign visitors 236 00:21:35,149 --> 00:21:36,988 in the new world. 237 00:21:36,988 --> 00:21:42,106 Perhaps more important than who was first is the recognition of the valor of all those 238 00:21:42,106 --> 00:21:43,346 brave men. 239 00:21:43,346 --> 00:21:50,423 In the days before Christ, one man humiliated Rome over and over again. 240 00:21:50,423 --> 00:21:52,343 He was infamous. 241 00:21:52,343 --> 00:21:58,860 He was lower than human.