MADE IN CHINA 10 GREATEST CHINESE INVENTIONS

Ancient China was a melting pot of advanced technologies and ingenious innovations

- Peter Fenech

1 Paper

It's hard to imagine a world without paper. It's an essential resource in almost every aspect of modern life, from supermarket receipts to sensitive government documents. The history of paper is fascinating, and like many great inventions its birthplace was China. It was first crafted in Lei-Yang during the Han dynasty in 105 CE by Ts'ai Lun, a court official. While early humans used rudimentary symbols applied to cave walls, paper enabled widespread communication and record-keeping, transforming how we pass information geographically and between generations. The initial process likely involved the pulping of hemp, waste rag fibres and the bark of mulberry trees, but the Chinese refined the process further, creating textured and coated papers, even innovating insect-resistant materials and the use of plant-based types, specifically from bamboo. It may seem a modest invention, but it took a further 800 years to reach Europe, and without paper, literature, history, education and entertainment as we know it simply would not exist. You certainly wouldn't be reading this magazine.

2 Gunpowder