China

The last of the Manchu emperors received a formal pardon on December 4th, 1959.

The year 2009 sees a remarkable coincidence of anniversaries that tell the history of modern China. Some will be celebrated by the authorities on a grand scale, others will be wilfully ignored, but all reveal important aspects of the country’s past, as Jonathan Fenby explains.

The Dowager Empress of China died on 15 November, 1908, after ruling the country for almost 50 years.

Asya Chorley describes the relationship between China, Britain and Tibet in the early twentieth century, and shares the unique experiences of the first European women to be invited to Lhasa by the XIII Dalai Lama.

The Mongolian past has been drawn by both sides into twentieth-century disputes between Russia and China, writes J.J. Saunders.

The treaties that ended the first part of the second Opium War were signed on 26 and 27 June 1858.

China and Rome were the two great economic superpowers of the Ancient World. Yet their empires were separated by thousands of miles of inhospitable terrain, dramatically reducing the opportunities for direct communication. Raoul McLaughlin investigates.

Author and journalist Jonathan Fenby explains what started him on an endless journey of exploration into China’s past.

Michael Loewe looks at the dynastic, administrative and intellectual background of the Qin empire, which defined how China would be run for more than 2,000 years, and at the life and achievements of the First Emperor Shi Huangdi, one of the greatest state-builders of history, whose tomb was guarded by the famous terracotta army.

For centuries Tiananmen Square has been at the heart of China. Named for the Tiananmen – the Gate of Heavenly Peace – its history has been anything but.