What a wonderful resource this is.

[Azélor]

Guy Gavriel Kay wrote several books about a fictional China, I haven't found the time to read it yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Heaven_%28book%29

There are several books about chinese history written by westerners but it does not compare to the number of books about the British Empire and most of these concentrate all their energy into the 200 last years.
Example: Fairbank, China A new history. A book of history but has only 15 pages on the Han dynasty. Don't read that book if your into history.

About the Romans, it's not true. Latin language, roman law and Christianity (maybe that's not really related) are all part of their legacy.

[triarius]

<snip>

About the Romans, it's not true. Latin language, roman law and Christianity (maybe that's not really related) are all part of their legacy.

A very small legacy, compared to the Han. How does the quote go? "The Empire, long united, must divide. The Empire, long divided, must unite." Nothing like that ever happened in the West. Yes, the Romans left a legacy, as did the Greeks, but we are not them. People living in China today have more in common with their distant ancestors than we do with ancient Greece or Rome.

The Han collapsed, but the Chinese Empire resurrected itself. The Roman Empire did not.