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In the 13th century, the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan embarked on a bold experiment. China at the time was divided into different regions, many of which issued their own coins, discouraging trade within the empire. So Kublai Khan decreed that henceforth money would take the form of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article provides information on the economic and social conditions in China. China's population density is 4.5 times that of the U.S., though the two are almost identical in size. The European Union, while much smaller geographically, is almost as densely populated as China. Chengdu, the birthplace of paper currency, is a one-time capital of China that is also one of its oldest cities. In part because of the country's enormous population, China's gross domestic product has become second in the world to that of the U.S. And the region's arable land is only 15 percent of its total land area.

The country's first manned science sub goes for global bragging rights – When a team of Chinese engineers set out to build the deepest-diving submersible in the world, they had never laid eyes on a manned deepsea vehicle. "We had only read some reference papers that had pictures; there was no chance for us to see a real manned submersible," says Cui Weicheng, deputy director of the China Ship Scientific Research Center and project manager for the new sub. "We were starting from the very beginning." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]