The years from A.D 500 to 1450 are called the Middle ages. Sometimes they are also called the Dark Ages since few people had an education during that time. Still, there were lots of new ideas and inventions. Many of them came from China.
| Paper Money In 1023. the first government—printed (政府印制的) paper money was printed in China. Before that, paper money had been printed just by companies. Marco polo was an Italian explorer who went to China. He wrote about paper Money. Paper money did not become popular in Europe Until Sweden began printing it in 1601. |
| Movable type printing machine Bi Sheng Made the first movable type printing machine in China in the 1000s. Before this， people had to make copies of books by writing out the whole book by hand. |
| Magnetic(磁的)compass A compass is usually used to tell you what direction you are going. The Magnetic compass was first used by the Chinese around A.D 200. But at that time， people mainly used it for telling what would happen to them in the future. They began using it for sailing around the year 1000. |
