• Textiles and silk
• Ceramics
• Construction and building

The Song saw an impressive development of iron and steel production for agricultural tools, as well as for such new developments as chains for suspension bridges and drill bits for the sinking of wells with bamboo serving as natural pipe.

Meanwhile steel tips increased the effectiveness of Song arrows also equipped with flame-throwers and "crouching tiger catapults" for throwing bombs. Gun-powder was also used to good effect in mining.

The Chinese were also world leaders in ship-building including water-tight compartments and stern-post rudders. They navigated with the aid of (south-pointing) compasses, another Chinese invention.

Related Web Link
• NOVA Builds a Rainbow Bridge [NOVA Online/PBS.org] This site gives a step-by-step description, with images, of how the "Rainbow Bridge" in the scroll (shown above right) might have been built.

• Watery Kingdom: China's Mariners from Antiquity to the Ming Dynasty [Vancouver Maritime Museum] Part of a larger unit on China's maritime history, this section on the Song Dynasty and Quanzhou includes information on advances in shipbuilding during the Song Dynasty and the significant 1974 excavation of a Song-dynasty ship near Quanzhou.