Cathay 1513), they started calling the country by the name used in South and South-East Asia. It was not immediately clear to the Europeans whether this "China" is the same country as "Cathay" known from Marco Polo. Therefore, it would not be uncommon for 16th-century maps to apply the label "China" just to the coastal region already well known to the Europeans (e.g., just Guangdong on Abraham Ortelius' 1570 map), and to place the mysterious Cathay somewhere inland. It was a small group of Jesuits, led by Matteo Ricci who, being able both to travel throughout China and to read, learned
Cathay Building Cathay Building The Cathay Building () was opened in 1939 by Dato Loke Wan Tho as the headquarters for the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation. Located at 2 Handy Road in the Museum Planning Area of Singapore, the building was most known for its air-conditioned theatre known as the Cathay Cinema, then a technological marvel and the first to be built in Singapore. Cathay Building was the first skyscraper in Singapore and tallest building in Southeast Asia at that time. The supposed 16 storey (11 storey upon completion) Cathay Building was designed by British architect Frank W Brewer. The Cathay Building