By R.S.N. MURALI
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA TERENGGANU: Tereng­ganu’s latest tourism project, a river cruise that starts from the scenic Pulau Warisan jetty here, will be extended to the Admiral Cheng Ho temple on a riverbank at Kampung Jeram in Kuala Nerus.
Along the way, the cruise will also stop at Kuala Berang, where an inscribed stone was found that reportedly recorded the earliest spread of Islam to the Malay peninsula.
“We plan to incorporate a heritage trail in the river cruise, so that tourists could get the feel of how the early voyagers made trips here,” said state executive councillor Toh Chin Yaw.
He said the cruise, which started last week from the jetty of the new RM61mil man-made Pulau Warisan island, was expected to be a lucrative revenue spinner for the tourism industry.
Since its beginning, it has become immensely popular.
“We are thinking of extending the ride to cover the Cheng Ho temple, located upstream of the Sungai Terengganu,” added Toh, who is the state Commerce, Industry and Environment committee chairman, after taking the cruise with a group of people from the tourism and media industries on Saturday.
According to Chinese annals, Cheng Ho set foot in Kampung Jeram, a 30-minute boat ride from the Sungai Terengganu estuary, in the 15th century.
The admiral was said to have sailed here in 1414 and stopped for food and water at the small village on his fourth voyage from China to the Malay peninsula.
It is documented that Cheng Ho and his crew spent a few months at the village before setting sail for Malacca in 1415.
Legend has it that he left a footprint on the riverbed before his departure.
A century later, Chinese seafarers who came here built a shrine to commemorate his visit.
Now known as Sam Poh Kong, it was upgraded over the centuries and people flock there to offer prayers in memory of the admiral.
Toh said that apart from the temple, the river tour would make a stopover at Kuala Berang where the Batu Bersurat Terengganu was found during a major flood in 1899.
The Jawi inscriptions on the stone are believed to have been written around 1303.
Historians said this proved that Islam had reached Terengganu before the 14th century and that a government had existed long before Malacca was founded.