Chinese Discover America?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/01/13/1421/index.html

This is another random work-related article from an off-hand comment from a co-worker when we were talking about Columbus Day as the next federal holiday after Labor Day. He said the Chinese discovered America, that he saw it on the discovery channel, and I just thought, "What the hell?" So I looked it up, and here it is. Apparently, there's some evidence that the Chinese discovered the Americas about 50 years before Columbus. That would still put them behind the Vikings, which is also well supported, and there are several other claims, but it's fairly interesting to consider that America might have been quite a bit more of a melting pot even before it was discovered by major western civilizations. It was totally a surprise to me, and really interesting.