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Shang and Chou times are known for their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, highly organized armies, and human sacrifice. 

Cities were surrounded by protective walls. One city was surrounded by a wall 30 feet high, 65 feet thick, and 4 1/2 miles long! Inside these walled cities lived the rulers, priests, and warriors. Merchants and craftsmen lived in mud houses built up against the outside walls of the cities. Farmers lived in nearby villages.

  Chopsticks were invented, which changed the way people ate their food.

Family: For both the rich and the poor, the family was all important. The oldest male was the head of the family. If one member of a family did something wrong, the entire family was in disgrace. In the nobles, marriages were arranged to strength or to create a union between two clans or families. 

The young obeyed their parents without a fuss. This was important part of ancestor worship. Even a wealthy noble with many servants might patch his father’s robe with his own hands. Children looked forward to the day when they would be parents, and their children would honor them. 

The role of the woman was to be gentle, calm, respectful, and to obey her husband. In ancient China, home and family were so important that they were nearly sacred. 

Shang & Chou kings and nobles: The rich lived in large homes and palaces made of mud and wood. They had tall bronze candlesticks. They used bronze drinking cups. (Shang leaders were famous for their drinking bouts.) They loved to hunt. Their bronze weapons were decorated with elaborate designs. Horseback riding was very popular, both as a sport and, in late Chou times, as a method of war. (Chariots had not worked very well as the landscape was rather bumpy and rugged.) 

The nobles wore elaborate gowns of silk and lived in large, brick homes with tiled roofs. They were lavishly decorated and furnished. Jugs of wine lined the walkways. The air was scented with flowers in the gardens and spices from pots of food steaming on stoves. 

They were buried in lavish tombs. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Shang and Chou were buried with living people. In their tombs, archaeologists have found entire chariots, objects of art, and the remains of guards and dogs who accompanied kings to their graves.