Discusses the clash of Western and Chinese cultures as China's ports were transformed into trading centers and technological advances displaced traditional ways of working and living. As a result of China's slowness to change, her power and influence over the Pacific theater quickly diminished, and Japan stepped into the forefront. Stories of the Mongol Invasions, Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion are recreated using original production footage shot in Mongolia, China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

Program one in the Pacific Century series, which studies the interconnections between Pacific nations - and between those nations and the United States - within a geographical, cultural, and historical framework.