At right, Chinese archeologists unearth a sewer system in Chengdu, Sichuan, dating from the Song Dynasty.
China has a very ancient origin.
China is the Greece and Rome of East Asia. The comparison to Greece and Rome only serves to illustrate the continuity of Chinese civilization for there are many important dissimilarities. China did not have significant slavery, for example. Nor should the comparison imply that China is unchanging. On the contrary, China has imported and diffused cultures, religions, technologies, ideas, and ideologies from all over the world throughout its history.