The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Chiasson
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.47
You Save: $7.48 (50%)
New (18) Used (9) from $6.85
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 289853
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0312362056
Dewey Decimal Number: 971.69
EAN: 9780312362058
ASIN: 0312362056
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW * NO MARKS * GIFT QUALITY.
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In 2003, Paul Chiasson climbed a mountain he never explored on the island where he grew up. Cape Breton, one of the oldest points of exploration in the Americas, is littered with remnants of old settlements. The road he found that day was unique. Consistently wide and formerly bordered with stone walls, the road had been a major undertaking. For the next two years, he surveyed the history of Europeans in North America, and came to a stunning conclusion: The ruins he came upon did not belong to the Portuguese, French, or English and pre-dated John Cabot's "discovery" of the island in 1497. With aerial and site photographs, maps, drawings and his expertise in the history of architecture, Chiasson pieces together clues to one of the world's great mysteries. The Island of Seven Cities reveals the existence of a large Chinese colony that thrived on Canadian shores well before the European Age of Discovery and unveils the first tangible proof that the Chinese were in the New World before Columbus.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
Remarkable Fun!!! November 18, 2008
Michael E. Fitzgerald (Kingwood, Texas USA)
Fabled in Spanish lore, antiquity's seven cities of gold are reputed to have launched the conquistadores on their successful invasions of Mexico and Peru and their materially less successful excursions into the Southwestern (Coronado) and Southeastern (de Soto) United States. In fact, both Coronado and de Soto were reputed to have been in the Arkansas River valley, one on the upper end, the other on the Mississippi end, during the same summer. In other words, the search for these cities was intense, cost a fortune to finance and resulted in the earliest known European exploration of today's lower United States.
Columbus was aware of the cities and depicted them on the legend of his first map, prior to his embarking on his initial voyage. They had been long reported by many, all too many voyagers, for them not to be real, thus Spain's remarkable efforts to find them. Were they a focus of Columbus' first and subsequent voyages? No one is talking. But in all of the subsequent exploration of the New World by Russia, Spain, France, England, Portugal, and Holland, these cities, so frequently reported by Norse, Basque and Italian mariners, were never located. Like Atlantis, no one has ever found them.
This book is a remarkable bit of history and archaeological sleuthing performed by the author, Paul Chiasson, a Montreal architect, who discovers a long lost ruin on Cape Breton Island, the land of his birth. It is the story of those ruins, how the author researched his findings and told his story in a manner that leaves the reader absolutely intrigued. Yes, the author concludes Cape Breton hosted the seven cities and that the ruins, in seven separate locations on the coast, are the real deal of antiquity. But there is more: The Cities were the result of a Chinese gold rush!
Amazingly well done, excellently written and remarkably far reaching in its early civilization impact, one is left with the feeling that man has inhabited this planet in a technologically advanced way for a very long, long time. Of course, if you think the conclusion is simply poppycock, to bizarre to be given serious consideration, then you will just have spent some fun time reading about a forgotten place that exists whose explanation is still a mystery. Cape Breton Island and Oak Island are awfully close together. Both represent technology unavailable at the time when they were supposed to have been constructed. Hmmmm.......
Talk about thinking outside the box! This is a terrific read that will make you think. Excellent, Mr. Chiasson, just excellent.
Convincing to me! August 19, 2008
John L. Whitlock (Jackson, MS United States)
As far as I'm concerned I'm convinced that Paul has the right idea! While we westerners thought the world was flat the Chinese were exploring and expanding their world daily. Real archealogy and anthropological investigations will undoubtedly prove his ideas to be true. His historical research appears to be impecably done. I'm glad to see he's still around to see what his book has wrought! I'm definitely a fan.
History's Discoveries June 1, 2008
R. DelParto (Virginia Beach, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of Architect Paul Chiasson's motivation to writing THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES: WHERE THE CHINESE SETTLED WHEN THEY DISCOVERED AMERICA was his life changing experience of facing mortality. Chiasson discovered he was HIV-positive. Although the book is not an autobiography of his experience, there is semi-autobiographical information that he shares with his readers, which inspired him to write the book, revisiting his birthplace of Nova Scotia and rediscovering his ancestral history closely linked to French explorer Samuel de Champlain. But the compelling aspect of his discovery is that upon learning of his illness, he hiked to the mountaintop on Cape Breton Island where past generations of his family had lived, and by accident, he came across ruins that may have dated back to the Ming dynasty. And with this discovery he formulated a hypothesis claiming that the Chinese may have landed in North America before European explorers.
This books ties in with a previous book examining China's possible role and contribution to the exploration of the New World, 1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE NEW WORLD by Gavin Menzies. Drawing from Menzies's discovery, Chiasson went on a two-year research expedition to finding more about the ruins and proving that they were settled by the Chinese. The Mi'kmaq, an indigenous people of the island, may have derived their culture from the Chinese, and in turn, helped French settlers to live and thrive on the island centuries later. But Chiasson's thought-provoking book is purely hypothesis, and extensive research by archaeologists and historians are still in order for his findings to be definite; if proven correct, this part of history adds another dimension to the understanding of world history.
ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES is a fascinating read. Chiasson offers insight to the many facets of how the exploration and discovery of the North American continent and its various settlements included a global community of different countries from the West and possibly may have included the East. For several historians this is skeptical history, but for curious minds wanting to understand the discovery of the New World from different perspectives, this is an interesting book.
Surprising China information November 8, 2007
Duane E. Massoll (Lake Mary, FL)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a great follow-up to confirm what I had previously read in "1421 the Year the Chinese Disvovered America" His research was extensive and his tie in to 1421 was great.
 Informative And Inspiring October 24, 2007
Bertrand R. Trotter (Southern California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Easy and a delight to read, Paul Chaisson's The Island of Seven Cities both informed me of the early Chinese in North America and inspired me to read more. Having already read Gavin Menzies 1421 - The Year China Discovered the World and complimented with some background while I was in China on reading Bamber Gascoigne's The Dynasties of China, I can't help but concur the Chinese had every tool, skill and knowledge to have almost conqured the world. Had it not for the Mandarins taking control in the late 1400's and closing China to the world, we'd all be speaking Chinese! Paul Chaisson uncovered an historic miracle of a magnitude yet to recognized on a strategic island off the East coast of Canada. Yes, he'll be chastised by the "experts" as Menzies has, but in the immortal words of Winston Churchill about truth; "...there it is." Great reading, hard to put down, well researched with what must be 30 pages of superb Notes and Bibliography! A must read for anyone intrested in the TRUE story of world history. I'm impressed! BTW: My daughter's courses in World History at the University of Southern California made Chinese history of world discovery as per Menzies' book required reading.
|
|
|
