Cathay known China under names similar to "Cathay", that country was known to the peoples of South-East Asia and India under names similar to "China" (cf. e.g. "Cina" in modern Malay). Meanwhile, in China itself, people usually referred to their nation state based on the name of the ruling dynasty, e.g. "Da Ming Guo" ("the kingdom of the Great Ming"), or as the "Middle Kingdom" ("Zhongguo" 中國); see also Names of China for details. When the Portuguese reached South-East Asia (Afonso de Albuquerque conquering Malacca in 1511) and the southern coast of China (Jorge Álvares reaching the Pearl River estuary in
Cathay Pacific fleet in the car park outside the Flight Training Center of Cathay City. <br> Cathay Pacific fleet Cathay Pacific operates an all-wide-body fleet composed of Airbus A330, Airbus A350 XWB and Boeing 777 aircraft. As of December 2018, the Cathay Pacific passenger fleet comprises the following aircraft: As of December 2017, the Cathay Pacific Cargo fleet comprises the following aircraft: Cathay Pacific Cargo operates to more than 40 destinations around the world, in addition to utilising the cargo space on the passenger aircraft. The cargo subsidiary was established in 1981 with a twice-a-week Hong Kong–Frankfurt–London service operated jointly with Lufthansa. Cathay