The Genius of China: 3,000 years of science, discovery & invention, by Robert Temple, first published in 1986, contains all sorts of fascinating facts and pictures regarding Chinese inventions and discoveries. Matches, umbrellas, and 'the magic lantern' - an ancestor of movies - were made in China long before they reached other continents. Suns-spots and solar winds were discovered by the Chinese. Two things that caught my attention browsing through the book are the first earthquake alert device and a simple map-making technique.

The earthquake alert system looks like an elaborate piece of bronze pottery. Dragons' heads circle near the top, and toads circle at the base. Each dragon has a ball in its mouth. Hidden within the jar is a kind of pendulum. When an earthquake occurs, a ball drops from a dragon's mouth to the toad below. The location of the specific toad reportedly points the observor toward the location of the tremors.

Some of the ancient Chinese maps are very simple grids. They don't show the topography of the land, but rather show precisely how many units of distance away, and the location of towns or other points of interest. Seeing these ancient drawings, and other ways of doing things characteristic of the Chinese, is an enlightening experience.