The Ming

Hear the story of China’s most famous dynasty. Michael Wood visits the Great Wall and the Forbidden City; sails the South China Sea on a junk; visits a fabulous Chinese garden; and travels to Macao with the first Jesuit missionary to China.

We all know about Columbus, but what about the great Chinese ocean voyages that took place before his time? Michael Wood tells the story of the Chinese Admiral Zheng He and his voyages to the west. He asks too, why were they stopped? "Some say it would be like stopping moon exploration after Apollo 8," says Michael. "But the Chinese had a different view."

Michael Wood visits Suzhou, "the Venice of China." Five hundred years ago during the Ming dynasty Suzhou was the symbol of China’s "Embarrassment of Riches." Staying in the house of a Ming merchant family, Michael explores China's new world of private wealth and fashion, when porcelain, lacquer making and silk weaving reached new heights to meet consumer demand.

Michael Wood arrives in the old Portuguese colony of Macao, the Europeans' first foothold in China. The Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci came here 1582, with the aim of converting the emperor and his people to Christianity. In today's cathedral in Beijing, Michael hears why Ricci is still so important to the 70 million Chinese Christians today.

Harvard University's Dr. Lik Hang Tsui tells the tale of the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, the ruthless Yongle who kills his nephew to take power. In a purge of his enemies, a loyal minister speaks out and receives the cruelest punishment: Death by ten degrees.