A Traveller's History of China provides a concise but fascinating journey from the country's earliest beginnings right up to the creation of the economic powerhouse that is today's China.

Stephen Haw carries the reader back in time to the prehistoric civilizations of 4,000 years ago, and from there to the centuries of China's silk trade with the less-developed countries of Europe.

Some of the most significant inventions of the pre-modern world, including paper, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass originated in China and were then transmitted to the West.

The author describes the glories of the Tang and Song Dynasties, which saw the creation of the great Chinese cities to the period of its decline and the efforts of Europe to conquer and subdue this giant land.

It covers the tumult and triumphs of the Chinese revolution and the dramatic changes in political policies since the late 1970s, which have now made it one of the world's fastest-developing countries.