As the Olympic torch completes its long journey to Beijing in time for this summer’s Games, Nathan May follows in its path and reports from China, a country under the microscope

21st century friction between China and the USA is evidence of just how powerful the Chinese have become. The economy is the second largest in the world and the country has ever increasing influence over world affairs. They also see things very differently from the West and the emphasis on the collective over the individual […]

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the first Opium War of the 19th century, before being return to the Chinese in 1997. Today it is a special autonomous region of the Republic of China and one of the leading financial centres in the world. Famous for its impressive collection of skyscrapers […]

It was in 1843 that China first allowed the West into the country; Shanghai was the first city to open. In doing so, the nation opened the floodgates for a new era of trade between East and West that would have a great impact on world history. The starkest impact was felt in the city […]

Few cities have served as the cultural and political centre of an area as large as China for so long; and while the likes of Rome and Constantinople have faded in their influence, Beijing is perhaps more important than ever. There is hardly a building in this historic capital that doesn’t have some national significance, […]