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Story of China

Get a Taste of the Good Life under the Ming Dynasty

Michael Wood visits Suzhou, "the Venice of China." Five hundred years ago during the Ming dynasty Suzhou was the symbol of China’s "Embarrassment of Riches." Staying in the house of a Ming merchant family, Michael explores China's new world of private wealth and fashion, when porcelain, lacquer making and silk weaving reached new heights to meet consumer demand.

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The Age of Revolution
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55:18
The great Taiping Rebellion, the fall of the Empire and the rise of Mao.
The Last Empire
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55:48
Michael Wood tells the dramatic tale of China's last empire, the Qing.
The Ming
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56:48
The time of the Great Wall , the Forbidden City and treasure ships sent on ocean voyages.
Golden Age
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55:18
Michael Wood tells the tale of China's Renaissance.
Silk Roads and China Ships
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57:33
Michael Wood conjures up China's first great international age, the Tang Dynasty.
Ancestors
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55:18
Michael Wood returns to the beginnings of Chinese history to find clues to today's China.
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