During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the palace also produced a big clock with distinctive Chinese features. Chinese watchmakers produced a lot of novel watches and clocks in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Guangzhou in South China, and Suzhou, Nanjing, and Yangzhou of East China were cities famous for their watches at the time.

Ⅲ. Chinese mechanical inventions that contributed to world societies

A common stereotype is that the Chinese have traditionally lacked scientific and technological ability, despite the four great revolutionary inventions of paper making, printing, gunpowder, and compass that have essentially changed the world. However, Chinese people have made a lot of other significant mechanical inventions besides the famous four, providing the source of many of the prerequisite technologies of modernity. From the 6th to the 15th century, China was the world's most technologically advanced society.

Here are some of the most celebrated mechanical inventions from China that have exerted profound influences towards the development of other societies, especially when they were passed to the West:

● Cast iron

● The double-acting piston bellows

● The crank handle (used for starting an engine)

● The gimbals (as in the ancient Chinese Incense Burner)

● Manufacture of steel from cast iron

● The belt drive (or driving-belt)

● Water power

● The chain pump

● Essentials of the steam engine

● The chain drive (in which an endless wheel transmits power from an engine)

● The wheelbarrow

● Sliding calipers (a kind of compass used for measuring diameters)

● The fishing reel

● The umbrella

● The mechanical clock

● "Permanent" lamps

● The spinning wheel

● Rudder