World's oldest geography

The Shan Hai King, or the Book of Mountains and Seas, is one of the world's oldest books. Originally thirty-two volumes, only eighteen remain, each containing detailed accounts of the exotic fauna and flora the authors encountered on their journeys. But historians cannot agree if the stories are fact or fiction. Each book begins on an unnamed mountaintop and ends on an unnamed mountaintop. If taken as truth, it means that Chinese explorers crossed the ocean to North America more than three thousand years ago--long before the Europeans or the Norsemen.

In addition to documenting aeroserpents--which leaves no doubt that the Shan Hai King is factual--many other wondrous creatures are described: wild dogs with six legs, green horses, foxes with fishes' fins, and "beasts that look like rabbits but have a crow's bill, an owl's eyes, and a serpent's tail." I was surprised to find no mention of aerophants until I realized they must be in one of the fourteen lost volumes. The books were ordered burned by the first Emperor of the Ts‘in dynasty, who wanted to obliterate all records of the past. Foolish, foolish man.