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 Dragon The aircraft was removed from service in February 2013, at the expiration of its lease. In 2016, Cathay Pacific, Dragonair's parent company, announced that they would be re-branding Dragonair to Cathay Dragon. For this change, a new livery has been adopted. The new livery is similar to Cathay Pacific's new livery in the tail logo and font. The major difference is instead of the Cathay Pacific green theme, it has a light maroon theme. The titles say Cathay Dragon along with Chinese lettering reading the name. Dragonair's Dragon logo has been retained and appears next to the cockpit windows. The