China has a long history of navigation. As early as 7000 years ago in the late Neolithic period, the ancestors of the Chinese nation could already use fire and stone axes to' chop wood for boats and chop wood for coffins'. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the gradual birth of wooden sailboats, large-scale maritime transportation and maritime wars appeared. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Xu Fu's Qin fleet sailed eastward to Japan, and the ships of the Western Han Dynasty sailed westward. During the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Wu Dong's fleet toured Taiwan Province Province and Nanyang, Faxian returned from India, and the Chinese fleet sailed for the Persian Gulf. From the Tang and Five Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, China's maritime industry flourished in an all-round way, and the Maritime Silk Road reached the shores of the Red Sea and East Africa. Because of the great breakthrough in navigation technology marked by compass navigation, China entered the period of "quantitative navigation" before the west. From Yongle period of Ming Dynasty to Xuande period, Zheng He, a great navigator of China, led an ocean-going fleet and visited Asian and African countries seven times.

This great voyage not only pushed China's ancient navigation career to the peak, but also erected a monument that will never go down in history in the whole history of human navigation. However, with the gradual conservative and rigid feudalism in China's later period, the further development of China's maritime industry and the continuous progress of marine science and technology were seriously hindered, and China's maritime industry entered a period from prosperity to decline. Although the Westernization Movement was carried out in the late Qing Dynasty, 1865 set up Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to develop the national shipbuilding industry, 1873 set up China Shipping Merchants Bureau to develop the national shipbuilding industry, and 1909 set up the Department of Shipping Administration in higher industrial schools to train national senior navigation professionals, which was difficult to achieve the general trend.

Looking back at the history of world navigation, as early as 2500 BC, people in ancient Egypt sailed to Lebanon along the Mediterranean Sea, and Phoebe in ancient Greece discovered the British Isles in the 4th century BC. The compass invented by China was introduced to Europe by Arabs and Egyptians around14th century, and the navigation activities of European navigation countries made great achievements. In 1987 and 1992, 1 14, after Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, 1492, Columbus of Italy crossed the Atlantic Ocean to reach America, 1497, Portugal da Gama reached India around the Cape of Good Hope, 15 19, Portugal Magellan sailed around the world.