Documentary on Ancient China

Mountains and Deserts

Mountains and Deserts

To the south of China are the Himalaya Mountains. These are the highest mountains in the world. They provided a border that is so difficult to pas it is practically impossible, keeping the area isolated from many other civilizations, like the Mongols and any others around Chins. They were also important to Chinese religion and were considered sacred, many Buddhist people are associated with the Himalayan Mountains and not only Buddhist many other religions too.

To the north and west of Ancient China were two of the world's largest and probably the most famous deserts, they are the Gobi Desert, The Gobi measures over 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from southwest to northeast and 800 km (500 mi) from north to south.  And the Taklamakan Desert, The Taklamakan Desert has an area of 337,000 km² (130,000 sq mi) making it slightly smaller than Germany. These deserts also provided borders that kept the Chinese isolated from the rest of the world, You start to see a pattern her the Chinese people didn’t want anyone beside them, you can take this as arrogance or you can see for it what it really is which is Independent, they were all smart and skilled they didn’t need anyone else. The Mongols, however, lived in the Gobi Desert and were constantly raiding cities of northern China. This is why the Great Wall of China was built to protect the Chinese from these northern invaders.

 

 

 

 

The Silk Road

The Silk Road

The Silk Road was a trade route that went from China to Eastern Europe. It went along the northern borders of China, India, and Persia and ended up in Eastern Europe near today's Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea.

It was called the Silk Road because one of the major products traded was silk cloth from China. Chinese silk was known for its softness and luxury. The Chinese sold silk for many years and, they sold it for so long even the Romans themselves had called China the "land of silk" which I find really cool.

The Silk Road is a very important part of Ancient China and its civilization, because it helped to generate trade between a number kingdoms and empires of different areas from all over the place. This helped for building, culture, inventions, and other products to spread across the world.

Besides silk, the Chinese also sold tea, salt, sugar and spices. Everything sold by the Chinese people was known around Europe to be expensive, this was because the trip was long .The Chinese people didn’t export all the time they were known to import goods like cotton, ivory and wool.

Although there was some trade between China and the rest of the world for some time, the silk trade was expanded by the Han Dynasty.

Later, under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty set up by Kublai Khan of the Mongols, as of this time the Mongols had defeated the Chinese so the Mongols had control and Kublai Khan was the first Mongol Ruler of the Chinese people, trade from China along the Silk Road would reach its peak, and you begin to get many merchants one of the most famous Merchant that came to China was a man called Marco Polo. During this time the Mongols controlled a significant portion of the trade route, enabling Chinese merchants to travel safely. Also, merchants were given more of a social status during the Mongolian rule over China.

 

The Grand canal

The Grand Canal

The Grand Canal is a man-made waterway that runs north and south in eastern China. It is the longest man-made waterway in the world.
The canal is over 1,100 miles. The canal connects two major rivers of China that I’m sure you must know, they are the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

The canal was built in order to ship grain from the rich farmland in southern China to the capital city in Beijing. This also helped the emperors to feed the soldiers guarding the northern borders (The great wall) from the Mongols the Chinese arch enemy north of them.

The Ancient Chinese people built canals to help with transportation. The canal stretched from the Yangtze River to another famous river called the Huai River.

It was during the Sui Dynasty that the Grand Canal was built. Emperor Yang of the Sui wanted a and more efficient way of transporting grain to the capital city of Beijing. He also needed to supply his brave army that guarded northern China from the Chinese arch enemy the Mongols from the North. So he decided to connect the existing canals and expand them to go all the way from Beijing to another city called Hangzhou.

Another famous ancient canal was the Hong Gou Canal which went from the Yellow River to the Bian River. These ancient canals became the basis for the Grand Canal over 1000 years later.

Building the canal took over six years of hard work to build by millions upon millions of workers also known as workers. Many people who were helping were actually forced to work on the canal, many of the people being mostly farmers. Many Because of this died during the construction. When the canal was finally completed in 609 AD China had a brand new waterway that would be benefit to the Chinese for hundreds of years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

The Great wall

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a wall that covers the northern border of China. The wall was built to help keep out northern invaders like the Mongols, the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang,  wanted a single giant wall to protect his northern borders. He ordered that a strong wall be built with lookout towers where soldiers could protect his empire.

The wall was built by slaves, peasants and also made some of the criminals to build the wall, and also any other people that the emperor decided to punish. Soldiers were involved in building the wall and also involved in managing the workers.

It is actually thought that millions of people worked on the wall over 1000 years. Some scientists have come out to even say they believe think that up to 1 million people died while building the wall. Generally the wall was built with whatever was available nearby.

The wall was really built to protect the northern border of China. It was a wall with some watchtowers, beacon towers to send signals, and blockhouses to house any soldiers living there. There were soldiers guarding the walls and towers also, this was their job. There were also towns built along the wall for some soldiers so they could get to the wall quicker in case of any attack. It is again believed that over 1 million soldiers had guarded the great wall, which is just crazy to here.












 

Rivers

Rivers:

One of the most important things you will learn about ancient china geographically is the two main rivers, that flowed through the centre of china is called the Yangtze river towards the south of China and the Yellow river to the North. The rivers was a good source for finding water, fertile soil, some food and also was used for transportation.

The Yellow river:

Known as the mother river by all the Chinese people, the yellow river is the second longest river in Asia after the Yangtze River. Its River basin was the birthplace to ancient china civilisation. Early Chinese farmers built small villages along the yellow river. The rich yellow coloured soil was good for growing a grain Called millet, the farmer’s also raised sheep and cattle.

The Yangtze River:

The Yangtze River plays a large role in the history, Culture and also the economy of modern China. As like the yellow river the Yangtze River played a huge part in the development of the culture and civilisation of the people of Ancient China, Farmers who lived on the river took advantage of the warm weather they were receiving and also the rainy weather to grow rice. The land along the River became one of the wealthiest and most important land in Ancient China. This River was a boundary for the northern and southern part of china, it is a very difficult River to cross due to how wide it is. The Battle of Red cliff was fought along the River.

Introduction

Hi my name is Alfred Oropo, this is my blog that I am going to bring you on the most interesting journey all the way back to before Jesus himself walked across this earth, that's right, Ancient China, one of the oldest Civilisations to date, and its Dynasties that we still talk about today, well me anyways. LETS BEGIN!


The history of china unbelievably dates back all the way to 2100BC under what is known as the Xia Dynasty, this is the first Dynasty, But there is a lot of speculation as to whether the Dynasty ever existed, but Archaeologist have discovered evidence to counter attack this claims