China: The Middle Kingdom. A 12-Piece Retrospective Collection (Twelve-Coin Boxed Set)

The Middle Kingdom, as China has always been called by its inhabitants, is perhaps the world’s most influential civilization. In addition to gunpowder, paper, woodblock printing, and the magnetic compass—the so-called Four Great Inventions—China also invented or discovered silk, tea, playing cards, toilet tissue, fireworks, boat rudders, umbrellas, kites, porcelain, wheelbarrows, iron casting, hot air balloons, seismographs, matches, horse stirrups, acupuncture, herbal medicine, lacquer, paper money, mechanical clocks, and alcohol.