How many years ago did humans start building ships and sailing to distant places

The first humans to start sailing were in China.

China has a long history of seafaring. As early as 7,000 years ago in the late Neolithic Age, the ancestors of the Chinese nation were able to use fire and stone axes to "cut wood for boats, and cut wood for rafts". By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the gradual birth of wooden sailing ships, large-scale maritime transportation and naval warfare appeared.

By the Qin and Han dynasties, there was a feat of the Qin Dynasty's Xu Fu fleet sailing east to Japan and the Western Han Dynasty sailing to the Indian Ocean. During the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Soochow fleet cruised Taiwan and the South Seas, Fa Xian returned from India, and the Chinese fleet sailed to the Persian Gulf. From the Tang Dynasty to the Song and Yuan dynasties, China's maritime industry flourished in an all-round way, and the Maritime Silk Road was far away from the Red Sea and the coast of East Africa.

Due to the major breakthrough in navigation technology marked by compass navigation, China entered a period of "quantitative navigation" ahead of the West. During the period from Yongle to Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, the great Chinese navigator Zheng He led an ocean-going fleet to visit the Western Ocean seven times and to visit Asian and African countries. This voyage not only pushed the ancient Chinese maritime industry to the peak, but also erected a monument in the entire history of human navigation.

However, with the gradual conservatism and rigidity of China's late feudalism, it seriously hindered the further development of China's navigation industry and the continuous progress of navigation science and technology, and China's navigation industry entered a period of decline from prosperity. Although the late Qing Dynasty carried out the Westernization Movement, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was established in 1865 to develop the national shipbuilding industry, the Steamship Merchants Bureau was established in 1873 to develop the national shipping industry, and the Shipping Administration Department was set up in the Higher Industrial School in 1909 to train national high-level navigation professionals, but it was difficult to become a general trend.

If the real sense of navigation is: Zheng He went to the West seven times, at that time in the Ming Dynasty.

In 1492, the Italian Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Americas, in 1497, the Portuguese da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India, and in 1519, the Portuguese Magellan sailed westward around the world, which also went down in the annals of world navigation.

Zheng He (1371---1435) of the Ming Dynasty "went to the West seven times", which was the turning point of the ancient maritime industry from its heyday to decline.

It seems like a year or two ago, less than three years at most.

The first ocean-going voyage in the history of human Henglu was ().

a.Portuguese seafaring explorer Magellan's voyage around the world.

b.Italian navigator Columbus's circumnavigation of the world.

c.The Chinese navigator Zheng He went to the West.

d.Marco Polo's Around the World.

Correct answer: c