The Story Of China

Catching up on The Story Of China?

Don't want to miss an episode anymore? Set up a free alarm and receive an email when new episodes are available. Handy!

December 2018
Expired
Between 1850 and 1950, three cataclysmic revolutions shook China to the core, but out of them, today's China emerged. Inspired by the Christian story and calling himself God's second son, Hong unleashed the bloodiest war of the 19th century, the Taiping Rebellion. As imperial China weakened, foreign influence grew: treaty ...
Expired
China's last empire, the Qing, lasted from 1644 to 1912. It began in violence and war as the Manchus swept down from the north, but invaders became emperors, with three generations of one family ruling the country. Among them, Michael Wood argues, was China's greatest emperor - Kangxi.
Expired
The great capital of Nanjing has 21 miles of walls, each brick stamped with the name of the village that made it. In the Bao family village, the villagers act a Ming murder story: the Ming were obsessive about architecture. Michael Wood looks at Ming culture in Suzhou, the 'Venice of China'; fateful exchanges with the west...
Expired
This episode tells the tale of what's broadly considered China's most creative dynasty - the Song (960-1279). Michael Wood heads to the city of Kaifeng, the greatest city in the world before the 19th century. In Twin Dragon Alley, locals tell him the legend of the baby boys who became emperors; explores the ideas that made...
Expired
Michael Wood tells the tale of China's first great international age under the Tang Dynasty. He travels along the Silk Road to the bazaars of central Asia, into India on the track of the Chinese monk who brought Buddhism back to China. In the backstreets of Xi'an, he meets descendants of traders from central Asia who came ...
November 2018
Expired
Starting in Wuxi, Michael joins the Qin family reunion where 300 relatives gather to worship their ancestors on ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’. He journeys to the plain of the Yellow River, joins a million pilgrims at the shrine of ancient Goddess Nuwa who made the first people from the yellow mud of the Yellow River; travels back in...
Archive