Han Dynasty China

For four centuries around the turn of the first millennium, Han dynasty China rivalled Rome as the other great power of the ancient world. From its capital at Chang'an it ruled most of what is still the Chinese heartland and pushed west into Central Asia, opening the trade arteries that became the Silk Road.

The Han period was so formative that the majority ethnic group of China still calls itself "the Han". Use ChronoAtlas to see China and Rome as contemporaries at opposite ends of Eurasia, connected by a thread of caravans across the steppe and desert.

Key facts

• At its height the Han census counted around 57 million people, comparable to the Roman Empire.
• Han diplomats and armies reaching Central Asia opened the Silk Road to sustained trade around 130 BCE.
• Paper was invented in China during the Han period, traditionally credited to Cai Lun around 105 AD.
• The dynasty's civil-service examinations shaped Chinese government for the next two thousand years.