A group of enthusiastic high school kids give Michael a guided tour around their school grounds where incredibly they show him the grave of China's greatest poet, Du Fu. The Chinese have loved Du Fu since he died in 770 - they call him their Shakespeare. Then, in the classroom, the kids take Michael through one of one of Du's most famous poems - and even manage to teach him a line or two!

Michael Wood visits the tomb of Confucius in Qufu. There he meets a visiting group of Korean scholars who perform rituals at the grave and tell us why Confucius is still one of the most important figures in the history of civilization. Then a party of school children say goodbye to Michael with a famous line from Confucius’ book of sayings, one of the best selling books in history.

Tang Dynasty Xi'an was an incredible 25 square miles in size, roughly the size of Manhattan! Michael Wood sets off on foot, along the giant medieval walls to explore one of the old districts of the city with its fast food joints, fortune tellers and funeral parlors; ending deep in the alleys at a temple dedicated to 'The Eight Immortals.'

At the town of Wuxi in the lower Yangtze valley, Michael Wood joins the Qin family as they celebrate the annual festival for the ancestors, a ritual that goes back thousands of years. Banned under the communists such rituals are coming back everywhere in today’s China, as once more the family regains its central place in Chinese culture.

Michael Wood tells how China’s greatest archaeological discovery started with a packet of over the counter medicine in a traditional Chinese drug store! In 1899, a Chinese scholar called Wang fell ill with malaria but he got more than he bargained for with his prescription! On the ‘dragon bones’, which he had to grind up and drink for his fever, he recognised the earliest Chinese writing!

Michael takes a stroll through the fabulous markets of Kashgar in Chinese Central Asia, still today full of different people, religions, cultures and cuisines. More than 1300 years ago, during China’s brilliant Tang dynasty, this was a crossroads of the world: "East and West first start to get to know each other then," Michael says: "You might say it's the beginning of universal history."

Search for the roots of today’s China with Wood, who joins a family reunion on “Tomb Sweeping Day”; sees the first Chinese writing and the first city; meets the bloodthirsty First Emperor; and travels with a million pilgrims to a country festival.

Explore China’s first international age under the Tang Dynasty as Michael Wood travels Silk Road deserts; sails the Grand Canal; describes the coming of Christianity in the streets of old Xi’an; and goes back to school in a dusty Chinese town!

Another sweltering hot day in filming in on the ancient city walls of Xi'an.

Any filmmaker will tell you that crews run on coffee. Sometimes it’s hard to find, so ingenious methods have to be employed to maintain blood caffeine levels!

Our Chinese crew have been fantastic but manipulating a 20ft crane into this temple was a challenge. As we had come to expect, they managed it with skill and a smile.

Composer Howard Davidson and soprano Wu He record the music for The Story of China.

Michael Wood joins a million pilgrims at a temple festival in the Chinese countryside to celebrate the myth of the mother-goddess Nüwa and her brother Fuxi, which has been handed down from prehistory. The people tell how the ancestors of the Chinese people Nüwa and Fuxi created humanity- by mixing their own blood with the yellow mud of the Yellow River!