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Retracing Chinese visits to America pre-Columbus
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Love it!
Fantastic and impressive achivement Christian and happy birthday today 🇩🇰 🇩🇰 🇩🇰
Applause 👏 👏 🙌
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How fantastic! Well done, guys. A monumental achievement. So glad you had a lovely welcome. So much to ponder, reflect and build on now but huge gains and glad you are back on solid ground. X
Tillykke med at I nåede målet. Vi glæder os til at se dig til august. Dbh Olav
Tillykke Christian Havrehed. Ses!
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This is a very worthwhile enterprise. Great idea
Well done you guys! Education with inspiration. Yours continues to be a great story. You will leave your own very positive legacy. Very proud of you both! Engage with China
Stage 1 - China to Japan - The New Xu Fu Voyage East
Past Projects
Global Canal Rowing Action
1 of 100 global rows in support of climate action, presented at COP27, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Row Round Denmark for Clean Seas
Community engagement project to remove a ton of trash from the sea
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Que lindo ver a Sofy obtener su titulo de Bachiller Internacional y cumpliendo el inicio de un gran sueño estudiar en otros paises y felicitarle por aprovechar estagran oportunidad que sus papitos le dieron para ellos tambien muchas felicidades
Me sumo a la alegría que embarga a Uds. como padres y un felicitación sincera a la graduada, el camino a la excelencia apenas ha empezado.
Wow! You made it!!!!! Congrats to all of you
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This is incredible! What an amazing effort from all the students and the people who helped them! Mariana Stilwell D'Avillez Arrobas Christian Havrehed
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Transforming "Pito" into "Yantu 2"
Reverse Viking row for Mental Health
England to Denmark row with UK Marines in support of students’ mental health during COVID lockdowns
Swim-Run-Swim to get a Lifeboat
880 km coast to coast solo run in the Pyrenees to fundraise a lifeboat for Mozambique
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Exploring China by Sailboat
… to make documentaries for Danish TV
Trans-Atlantic Row with Chinese ex-Soldier
5,084 km ocean row to test the limits of Sino-Western cross-cultural cooperation and fundraise for Chinese students
Forget Taiwan. The uneasy China–Japan relationship goes back 2,000 years.
Last year, Sun Haibin and I were privileged to retrace the legendary voyage of Xu Fu — China’s earliest maritime explorer — who in 210 BC was sent by the First Emperor to retrieve the Elixir of Immortality from the gods in the Eastern Seas.
To make the expedition happen, we needed unprecedented permission from the Chinese government to leave China in a rowing boat. Japan, too, agonized over receiving us, since we had no engine. Unfortunately, we had to abort this historic row a few days in due to adverse winds. Instead, we flew to Japan and complete the journey around Kyushu in sea kayaks visiting temples dedicated to Xu Fu along the way.
I’ve often spoken about the expedition. What I haven’t said much about is Xu Fu himself and his geopolitical significance in the China-Korea-Japan civilized nation upmanship.
Close to unknown in the West, Xu Fu may be one of the most controversial figures in world history. Some claim he became Japan’s first emperor. Others, like Joseph Needham, suggest he may have reached America, upstaging the Vikings and Columbus. If true, Xu Fu’s story could upend national self-images in both Japan and the US.
As an explorer, what better story to investigate?
Having now concluded the New Xu Fu Voyage East Expedition, I can say with confidence: Xu Fu was not Japan’s first emperor. But whether he reached the Americas? That will take another five years of research and exploration. Read more: yantu.com/current-expedition
But Xu Fu’s legacy still looms large in East Asia. Consider this:
• Japan had no written language until the 5th century, when it adopted Chinese characters (Kanji) from China.
• In the 9th century, Japan developed Hiragana and Katakana to complement Kanji.
• If Japan wants to learn about its ancient history it has to rely on Chinese history books.
• Korea adopted Chinese script in the 1st century BC — making Japan the last of the three to become a “historic” and therefore civilized nation.
This is difficult for Japan to accept. And that’s where Xu Fu’s legacy becomes useful.
If Xu Fu arrived in Japan in the 3rd century BC, then he must have brought the written language with him, thereby making Japan two centuries more cultured than Korea.
So, to the Japanese, Xu Fu is both inconvenient and convenient: a reminder of donor culture input from China that Japan would rather not acknowledge, yet also a way to leapfrog Korea in the civilizational hierarchy.
There are 7 Xu Fu Associations in China and more than 20 in Japan. I have had the privilege of visiting most of them. Due to the current political climate, they don’t really talk, but our New Xu Fu Voyage East project brought them together, if only briefly.
The picture shows Sun Haibin and me with Kaori Uchiyama, Chairwoman of the Main Japanese Xu Fu Association. The stone stele (that may look like a tomb stone to some) was erected by Nobeoka city in front of the local Xu Fu temple to commemorate the project.
Exploring comes in many shapes and sizes. It is more than pitting one’s wits against nature. If this post whets your appetite for unusual insights, then check out my speaker site:
#keynotespeaker #China #crossculturalcommunication #SinoWesternCollaboration #YANTU #ChristianHavrehed #AtlanticRow #LeadershipDevelopment #GlobalBusiness ... See MoreSee Less
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🚀 New Adventure, New Stage - Now Booking Keynotes
After years of global companies reaching out for talks and team-building - without me doing much promotion - I’ve decided to professionalise my speaker business.
Why now? Because my expeditions are taking longer to get approved, and I need some high-energy positive interactions to fuel the mind-numbing battle against red tape.
From rowing across oceans to stress testing cross-cultural collaboration, risk-taking, and championing ESG under extreme conditions, I’ve gathered insights that help corporates perform and employees deal with adversity, self-doubt, and set-backs.
Stage 2 of my “rewrite-the-history-of-exploration” project - investigating whether the Chinese, like the Vikings, reached America pre-Columbus - is set to launch from Japan through the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka to the Bering Strait. A small snag: Japan and Russia are technically still fighting World War II over the Kurils, and Kamchatka is Russian territory. So rowing through that route could take another five years of chasing permissions - just like it did to row from China for Japan last year.
The energy from giving high-impact keynotes to help others perform will help me stay sane while navigating expedition bureaucracy.
🎤 Check out my new site (link in comments)
If you see a keynote that fits your next event, please reach out. And yes (he asks shamelessly): please share it in your network, tag a booker, give your company a memorable Christmas present…
📅 Book before Chinese New Year 2026 to enjoy a special offer.
What am I like as a speaker? Check it out:
Thanks for your support - and for being part of the journey.
__________
Would you like a version tailored for corporate leaders, event planners, or cross-cultural teams? I can adapt tone and emphasis to match each audience.
#keynotespeakers #China #CrossCulturalLeadership #SinoWesternCollaboration #yantuattitude #ChristianHavrehed #atlanticrow #leadershipdevelopment #GlobalBusiness #risktaking #grit ... See MoreSee Less
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christianhavrehed.com
What Xi and Trump could learn from being in the same boat
In 1993, I began working in China and quickly saw the elephant in the room: a deep lack of trust between Chinese and Westerners. Not because of bad intentions - but because of different worldviews, histories, unspoken fears, and limited interaction.
Idealistic as I am, I felt compelled to do something. So I built a boat.
In 2001, I launched the Yantu Project (沿途方案) - “The Ongoing Project” - to prove that China and the West can achieve anything together, if both sides trust in each other and have a common vision.
To test this hypothesis, I teamed up with Sun Haibin, a former Chinese soldier I barely knew. Together, we rowed 5,000km across the Atlantic Ocean in 56 days. No islands. No chance of jumping ship. Just two men, one boat, a wide hostile ocean, and a shared goal.
We didn’t just survive. We thrived. And we learned what it really takes to collaborate when everything’s on the line.
We call it the Yantu Attitude:
Y – Yield, Ego, Yield!
Let go of prejudice. See eye to eye — not ego to eye.
A – Accept Rowing in Opposite Directions
Get curious. Differences may well be complementary, not conflicting. Ask “what and why” you want to achieve. Develop your humour safety valve.
N – Nail the Vision
Define and commit to your shared vision. Discuss “how” to achieve, agree roles, limits. Hone the humour safety valve. Define success and failure.
T – Take to the Seas
Commit and leave safe harbour. If you don’t cast off, you can’t arrive on the other side. Never forget the vision is your compass, particularly when seas are rough.
U – United We Stand — or Fall
There’s no solo finish in a two-man boat.
The Yantu Attitude isn’t just for adventurers. It’s for presidents, CEOs, and anyone trying to collaborate across cultures.
If two strangers can cross an ocean together, surely two nations can find common ground.
What do you think of the Yantu Attitude? Could it work for Xi and Trump?
#YantuAttitude #CrossCulturalLeadership #TrustAcrossBorders #EastMeetsWest #ResilientCollaboration #LeadershipUnderPressure #keynote ... See MoreSee Less
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