there's alot of interesting being dug in china every day btw
it just doesnt' get well-publicized outside of china
what i find really interesting though is how well developed and wide-ranging the ancient chinese aesthetic was in comparison to greece or rome
they were already looking past the outward appearance of things and trying to draw out something more, and were very creative and very varied in their efforts, and were in that way thousands of years ahead of the europeans - but at no point was technique sacrificed
europe in comparison stagnated until the 19th century and wasn't really able to develop beyond realism/naturalism
europeans didn't really seem to have a unified aesthetic either, only a mish-mash, and it was, by modern standards, in very poor taste (we know that they painted their marble statues in very bright colors)
even in, say, the basilicia in rome, it's hard not to cringe
rometoolkit.com/Images/xstpeters_basilica_interior2.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Jq3YT_2BT2.webp
same for the palace in versailles or the reims gothic cathedral
it just doesn;'t have the unity of aesthetics that a chinese wooden building has - but it compensates for it through height and size, like gothic cathedrals - at which point it's more a feat of engineering than aesthetics
a modern archtiect or graphic designer would take one look at it and shake their heads
mongols carried gunpowder to europe
gunpowder allowed the europeans to force multiply in the new world, on top of the disease burden, also carried by the mongols to europe
etc. etc.
and the westernmost of western europe was 3x closer to new world than china