Sri Lanka is to commemorate the 600th year anniversary of the visit of the great Chinese naval admiral Zheng He with his shipping fleet to the island nation on Tuesday in Colombo.

An oration titled "Zheng He" is to be delivered by Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism to mark the 100 years of the finding of trilingual Inscription erected during the visit of Zheng He to Sri Lanka.

Now preserved in the Colombo National Museum, the stone tablet inscription in three languages, Chinese, Tamil and Persian was erected in 1411 in the southern port city of Galle, to commemorate the second visit by Zheng He who had made offerings to a mountain top Buddhist temple on the Adams Peak and Islamic god Allah and invoked the blessings of Hindu deities here for a peaceful world built on trade.

Zheng He visited Sri Lanka 6 times out of his 7 voyages to around 30 countries from 1405 to 1433, during the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

"His visits have strengthened China-Sri Lanka bilateral relations immensely in that era, and were revived by the subsequent leaders in Sri Lanka," a spokesman from Sri Lanka Tourism said.

"Zheng He is a hero in China but sadly, his visits to Sri Lanka are not very much known in China," he stated. Sri Lanka has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote tourism in Yunnan Province where Zheng He was born.

Sri Lanka, which enjoyed the recorded highest tourist arrival to the country in the year 2011, targets to attract more Chinese tourists by unraveling the historical ties existing between the two countries.

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