photo by WWW.MATIKRIMERMAN.COM
"The Forbidden City is the world's largest surviving palace complex ." Emperor Zhu Di began building the city in 1406 during the second generation of the Ming Dynasty. "Construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers."
The written history of China itself extends back 5000 years. Among the proverbial "ancient Chinese inventions" are:
- Chinese calendar (duh)
- Chopstick (My father always told me the fork was an ancient Chinese invention.)
- Dildo (This is questionable as I'm sure most women would agree; dildos are much older than this.)
- Toothbrush (as most of pre-18th century Europe can attest)
- Toilet paper (You never think of who invented toilet paper, do you? But I bet you're thankful you're not washing up after the lack of it.)
- Traditional Chinese medicine (again, duh)
- π (They didn't actually invent pi, but they did the most accurate calculation of it without a supercomputer.)
- The cannon (War is the mother of invention.)
- Crossbow (ditto)
- The Flamethrower (ditto)
- Early explosive grenades (ditto)
Also included in the technologial advances we owe to great Chinese polymaths:
Flash lock
Drydock
Odometer
Paddle wheel, for boats
Paper money
Parachutes
Pontoon bridge
Porcelain
Postal system
Saw
Segmental Arch Bridge
Seismometer
Scissors
Steel
Suspension bridge
Star catalogue
Tea
Collapsable Umbrella
Vaccination
Water clock
Waterwheel
Windmill
Lots of bridges, and water-related items.
Yes, they have a horrible history of human rights violations, but so do we, really. So do all human civilizations. Stop for a moment and think about the fact that this amazing imperial city was built about 85 years before Columbus set foot on North American soil, 400 years before Washington D.C. (our version of an imperial city) was begun, 260 years before the city of London burned, this city, composed almost entirely of wood, was built and still stands.
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