Two thousand years before the circulatory system was discovered by William Harvey, the Chinese had elaborated a complex theory of the blood's circulation.

The decimal system was invented by the Chinese in the fourteenth century B.C., 2,300 years before the first evidence of the proper use of decimals in Europe.

More than 1,500 years before Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of a parachute, the Chinese had already invented one and were actually using it.

The fishing reel was first developed by the Chinese. It also had a less-than-peaceful purpose: to retrieve valuable javelins, attached to cords, from the bodies of fallen enemies.

The Chinese were the first to invent the suspension bridge. By the first century they had developed the first steel suspension bridge capable of transporting vehicles across their many mountain gorges, having first invented vine and rope suspension bridges four centuries earlier.