Many Chinese discoveries were handed down from generation to generation and found their way to foreign countries. Since most of this happened thousands of years ago, however, people today have only a sketchy notion of the achievements of their ancestors, most of it gleaned from old books.
現代西方科技，很多源自中國這些發明。然而，因年代久遠，這些成就漸被國人淡忘，現代人只能從古書中得到模糊的印象。