After the fall of Tang Dynasty, rival warlords divided China into separate kingdoms. In 960 A.D, Taizu reunited China, he was also the first emperor of Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty ruled a much smaller empire than Tang Dynasty. 

 

The Song Dynasty moved their capital to Hangzhou, because they lost the north. The Silk Road was an important trade road which connected China and western empires, but it was in the north of China, so they also lost it. After that, the Song Dynasty had to found another way to trade, and they chose waterways. Hangzhou was a city near the sea, and they traded compasses and clock to India, Persia, even to Africa.  

 

They also sent a lot of things like silver, silk, and tea to the empire in the north of them for peace. China importd a new type of fast-ripening rice from vietnam, this allowed farmers to harvest two rice crops each year. 

 

In the Song Dynsty, people made a lot of Inventions. For example: gunpowder, paper money for large sums, movable type in printing, porcelain, compass for navigation, ant the mechanical clock .

 

At last, the Mongols conquered Song dynasty, because Mongols were too strong. The Song Dynasty didn't ask for more taxes from its people, which means they couldn't make a large army to fight aginst the Mongols, and finally, the Mongols conquered it.