The Italian priest an emperor let bury in Beijing
Matteo Ricci sailed from Lisbon in 1578, reached China in 1582, and spent nearly twenty years working his way inland until he entered Beijing in 1601, where he presented the Wanli emperor with chiming clocks and a Chinese-language world map. Ming law required foreigners who died in China to be buried far away in Macau — but when Ricci died in Beijing in 1610, the emperor granted him a burial plot in the capital, an honor never before given to a European.
How we know
Matteo Ricci 1552–1610; sailed from Lisbon in 1578, entered China at Macau in 1582, reached Beijing in 1601, and died there in 1610. Ming law required foreigners dying in China to be buried in Macau; the Wanli Emperor granted an exceptional Beijing burial plot (later Zhalan Cemetery), the first for a Westerner.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.