The early imperial governments began constructing what they called the Long Walls and digging the Grand Canal to connect the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. China held a monopoly on the creation of silk, which was a closely-held state secret for millennia, and it led the world in iron, copper, and porcelain production. China also invented a variety of technologies including the compass, gunpowder, paper-making, mechanical clocks, and moveable type printing.
I find it very interesting and cool that you can compare today's world to this. The advancments that they were making and the things that were going on are sort of similar to today. Like the Grand Canal is similar to when we made the Panama Canal, also monopolies do exist in today's world, but are regulated. The new technologies like gunpowder, paper, mechanical clocks, and moveable type printing are like today's new technologies in AI systems and robots.