'China' is a highly illustrated exploration of the ideas and achievements of this unique culture. It investigates the key cultural, spiritual and technological innovations and challenges the conventional view of China as an isolated, insular civilisation instead stressing the international and cosmopolitan nature of its history. Through a combination of authoritative and accessible scholarship, we learn about the legacy of it's long dynastic rule whilst a concluding section discusses the continuing legacy of the imperial period through the turbulent years of the twentieth century up to the present day.