The first ethnic Chinese to sail around the globe alone has embarked from Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour on his sloop Albatross for a new voyage Thursday.

Shaun Yixuan Weng, a Beijing-born Chinese American, is heading towards Taicang of Jiangsu Province, East China, where 600 years ago another Chinese sailor started global voyages.

The goal of Weng's trip is to repeat the expedition of the legendary Chinese navigator and diplomat Zheng He (1371-1435) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Two television crew members from the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite Television network are travelling along with him.

On December 14, 1998, Weng left San Francisco on the Albatross for his solo circumnavigation of the world that took him three and a half years to complete. He arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 9, 2002, becoming the first Chinese to sail solo around the world.

(China Daily July 23, 2004)