What items from ancient China have spread to the West

The Four Great Inventions (papermaking, the compass, gunpowder and movable type printing with collodion), silk, porcelain, and tea.

Transmitted from China to the West was engraved printing, and later Westerners independently invented their own movable-type printing; the pattern of world trade changed dramatically between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries. Europeans' worldwide maritime exploration and coastal colonial expansion were basically completed. The coastal areas of Africa, America, and the Far East were successively incorporated into the world trade network dominated by Europeans. Though the European eastward expansion destroyed the traditional East-West trade network, their Far East expansion for the purpose of commerce also greatly promoted the East-West trade. 16th century Chinese silk and 18th century Chinese tea flowed into Europe and America on an unprecedented scale, and became one of the most profitable commodities of the European Eastward trade. From the 16th century to the early 18th century, the traditional handicrafts of China's trade with the West has maintained a huge surplus, the West is to the Americas to pay for the purchase of Chinese silk and tea silver, resulting in 280 years of large-scale inflow of silver into China's process. Inflow of silver into China is mainly used to buy Chinese silk, and Chinese silk overseas market to Japan as the first, followed by Europe and the Americas.