You might think restaurants are a 20th century invention, but you would wrong! The first restaurants appeared in the early Song Dynasty ( 1960-1279 ) in the Chinese capital of the time. The economy and trade were booming, and merchants and shopkeepers did not have time to go home and eat. Which resulted in the creation of restaurants. Due to the large amount of foreigners and Chinese people flocking to the city, there was a wide variety of flavours that needed to be accommodated which led to the creation of a menu.

Paper in all forms originated in China. Evidence of Chinese paper as 200 B.C. has been found. Pair this with the development of woodlblock colour printing in the 6th century, and you get inventions like playing cards. Playing cards were used across Asia by the 11th century.

Silk and white mulberries go together like salt and pepper. The earliest examples of silk are 8500 years old and are found in ancient tombs. The mulberry has been used for thousands of years to feed the larva or caterpillar of the Bombyx mori moth that produces the silk.

That’s not all, you can also thank the Chinese for the watch on your wrist. In the 8th century they came up with a device that used dripping water to turn a wheel.