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A Chinese artist has been preparing for a global voyage in Dalian of northeastern China's Liaoning Province in a bid to become the first Chinese sailor to single-handedly navigate the globe, China Daily reported recently.

Zhai Mo, 35, an artist from east China's Shandong Province, plans to set sail on March 18 without power or a communication system, packing only about 150 kilograms of water and food, the English language newspaper said.

The lone sailor intends to cruise China's coastline for an initial two-month period before heading out on a one-year-plus voyage around the world, the newspaper said.

Zhai was quoted as saying, "I've long dreamed of showing that the cultures of the original inhabitants along the Pacific Ocean arose from the Chinese culture."

As a painter and photographer interested in Western art history, he began to work in France in 1998. And two years later, he decided to relocated in New Zealand, where he bought a sailboat and named it "AOATEA", meaning "white clouds" in the Maori language.

In the past few years, Zhai made his voyage around the islands of the Southern Pacific, covering 21,000 nautical miles in total, collecting many items from the local people including totems and music.