The famous sailor and explorer, Zheng He, is mentioned in this episode. I also read a story called Finally Being a Sailor in Stories in Kids in Chinese History (available on our website).

In this episode we talk about the first few emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

Marco Polo was one of Europe’s most famous explorers. We talk about the long trip he took to China and back (he spent 17 years in China on this trip!).

In this episode we talk about two of the major cities in the Yuan Dynasty: Xanadu and Beijing. We also talk about the Grand Canal was restored and used again during this time. A great documentary about Xanadu is in a series called Ancient China from Above.

In this episode, we talk about 2 of the most famous men in the Yuan Dynasty (and just before it): Genghis and Kublai Khan.

Yue Fei is one of the China’s most famous army leaders. I read a story from Chinese History Stories, Volume 2: Stories from the Imperial Era, edited by Renee Ting. in this episode. This is a great book that has stories from China’s history for kids.

The country was once again brought back together as one country under the Song Dynasty. In this podcast we also mention Sima Guang, Yue Fei, and Empress Zhangxian Mingsu.

Even though this time is such a short time, there was a lot of chaos and the country was, once again, divided. This is the time between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

Since the Tang Dynasty was so famous for its poetry, we thought it might be fun to have some of the more simple and famous poems read aloud in Chinese. A lot of these poems are poems that kids learn in schools today in China, hundreds of years after they were first written!

Since poetry was so famous for the Tang Dynasty, I thought it might be interesting to read aloud some of the poetry from DuFu, one of the famous poets of this time.