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This book explores China's historical ascent since the Age of Exploration, aiming to contextualize its future in a shifting global landscape. The establishment of the Great Ming dynasty in 1368 marked a pivotal moment in world history, as Beijing initiated diplomatic missions across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, heralding China's first modern global era. Ali Humayun Akhtar traces this journey from Admiral Zheng He's embassies to the arrival of European mariners and the subsequent Opium Wars. His narrative reveals parallels between China's past and its current rise, providing insights into its trajectory today. Vivid accounts in Persian and Ottoman Turkish depict Beijing's Forbidden City, while Malay legends tell of Chinese princesses in Melaka bearing gifts of porcelain and gold. During Europe’s Age of Exploration, Iberian mariners opened new routes to China, later transformed into lucrative tea trade by the Dutch and British East India Companies. The British Industrial Revolution marked a turning point, as steam engines and factories shifted the dynamics of trade. By the end of the Opium Wars and Commodore Perry's arrival in Japan, reformers in China and Japan sought their own industrial revolutions, which accelerated in the twentieth century. Akhtar's work offers essential context for understanding China's resurgence as a manufacturing powerhouse and its evolving relationships with the West and Asia.