china

GOLDEN AGE OF
CHINA
• The silk road was not a single road. It was a long chain of
connecting trade routes across Central Asia. These
routes streched 4000 miles, all the way from China to
theeastern Mediterranean Sea. Most of the goods they
carried were small and very valuable.

The Tang Dynasty
China covers much of East Asia. It is an immense land
with a varied landscape. In the eastare lowland and
coastal regions. Fertile valleys lie along the Chang and
Huang rivers. To the north and west of these farmlands
are great deserts and mountainous regions, including
the GobiDesert in the north and the Plateau of Tibet in
the west.
Peoples from these distant areas and traders traveling
along the Silk Road introduced new ideas as well as new
goods to China. Chinese ideasand inventions also
spread to other nations. Such exchanges helped China
become an important center of the trade and culture.

Dynasties Rule China
China has been ruled by many differentdynasties. A dynasty is a series of rulers froom
the same family. One of those was the Han
dynasty. After the collapse, china broke up into
several kingdoms, but Chinese culture survived.
Buddism spreadthroughout China , and the arts
and learning continued to develop. After that
the Sui dynasty.

A Golden Age Begins
After the Sui dynasty the Tang came to power
and ruled China for almost 300years. The Tang
dynasty was a golden age of political and
cultural achievement. Chang´an was the worlds
largest city st that time. Chang´an was shaped
like a rectangle and surrounded by tall wallsfor
protection. A variety of food, entertainment, fine
goods were available to those who lived there.

The Grand Canal
Tang leaders continued projects that
had been started under the Sui. One ofthe largest of these projects was the
creation of the huge canal. The Grand
Canal was a waterway that linked the
Huang River and the Chang River.
Millions of the workers took part in the...