China Logistics Story: Ancient Volume (English-Chinese Edition) – 12 Tales of Canals, Granaries & Sea Routes

What is this book actually about?

No formulas. No models. This book is about how people in ancient China moved things — grain from the south to the north, troops and supplies to the frontier without railways, and how a single canal kept an entire capital city fed.

It presents 12 historical moments: the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Silk Road, the Hanjia Granary, the “uniform wheelbase” standard, Zheng He's voyages to the West, the Qin Dynasty Direct Road, the escort agency (biao ju), ancient customs, grain transport (cao yun), and the Forbidden City. Each one is a concrete logistics story with a setting, people, decisions, and consequences.-13

How is this different from a regular history book?

A regular history book tells you what happened. This book tells you how things moved. Where a granary was sited. How a canal was divided into sections to manage water levels. How relay stations passed messages forward. How escort agencies organized protection. The details that history books skip over — this book makes them the main story.

Why bilingual?

The book was led by Yi Bing, head of the Logistics Management program at Wuhan Business University, and co-authored with faculty from multiple universities over five years. It is officially designated as a “curriculum ideology textbook” for economics and management programs.-11- The Chinese-English format means Chinese readers get the full original narrative, and English readers can enter the content directly — no language barrier first.

Who should read it?

• Logistics, supply chain, and transportation students — this is the kind of scenario-rich case material your courses reference

• Cross-border e-commerce and international logistics professionals — understand where Chinese logistics thinking comes from

• Chinese readers interested in business and economic history

• Overseas readers who want to read real Chinese stories in English, or anyone who needs to explain Chinese civilization to a foreign audience