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Highlights From the 5th Cross-Strait Academic Forum on “The Age of Exploration and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in Xiamen, China

The 5th Cross-Strait Academic Forum on “The Age of Exploration and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” (November 21-23, 2025, Xiamen, China) has successfully concluded, with approximately 70 participants and 40 papers presented.

Dr. Sheng-Wei Wang (王胜炜; President of the China-U.S. Friendship Exchange, Inc.) and several other scholars gave keynote speeches. Dr. Wang’s talk was titled: In-depth Exploration of the Location of Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰 and Xue Shan 雪山 depicted on the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》, translated as Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World.

Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》 (abbreviated as KWQ) is the first Chinese world map published by Matteo Ricci in 1602 in China, which Dr. Wang has recently shown to be a map of Chinese origin. In her speech, she asked about this map: is Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰 (lit. Cape of Tide) located at today’s Cape Peirce, Alaska, or near Anchorage as has also been proposed? Is Xue Shan 雪山 (lit. Snow Mountain) today’s Mount Hood in Oregon, or Mount Adams or Mount Rainier in Washington State?

  Dr. Wang’s in-depth analysis shows that 1) Cape Peirce’s coordinates fit those of Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰far better than Anchorage; 2) Cape Peirce does have tides, albeit not as high as Anchorage; and 3) the geographical surrounding of Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰 fits Cape Peirce far better than Anchorage. Her analysis also concludes that Xue Shan 雪山 may be today’s Mount Hood, or Mount Adams, but not Mount Rainier.

We hope you enjoy some of the photos from the forum:

Readers can check the following link to view the complete official report (Chinese language) on the forum:

http://iwaas.cass.cn/tpxw/xsxw/202511/t20251124_5952049.shtml

For more information on Dr. Wang’s research on Pre-Columbian America’s geographical representation on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》, we invite you to consider her book, Chinese Global Exploration in the Pre-Columbian Era: Evidence From an Ancient World Map (2023). More information here.

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