Update 10: Aztec Goodwill&KnifeAs noted by one of ministers of the Chinese court, it might be that Aztecs have powerful empire spanning two continents. A Balloon was rushed in the city of Kyoto with the goal of exploration of Aztec inlands.
Especially that two turns later Aztec Ironclad (unsuccessfully) bombarded Tientsin!
Five turns later they
land near Tientsin!
Hello there, enigmatic raiders from the east.
Sure! If that stops you from bombarding Tientsin so often.
Ooooh. This is a tempting offer... Democracy is beefed up Republic, the Senate might be more inclined to warfare, plus the boost of luxuries, trade and science is even higher than republic; plus there's just tiny amount of Corruption and Waste compared to Republic.
The Queen accepted and told the mandarins to leave their wine cellars.
That renders our Balloon expedition obsolete!
And thanks to President Wu Zetian, we are now back on the track of science train! Let's see Aztec map-
Oh damn, they sure did expand a bit on that private continent of theirs. I mean they're just behind us in terms of improvements, but their empire is smaller. They did a lot of sea traveling as you can see by the explored minimap in upper right corner.
They will be either our (distant) neighbours or competitors in the race for space.
We will see sometime in the future I gu-
D:<Honestly?? I mean all they did was lose buncha Catapults and Frigates against Tientsin (what's with them converging on it anyways?), but still, this is aggravating! At least Vikings and Greeks are perpetually against us, not stabbing us in the back the moment we sign peace!
Bah!
Fortunately they do not bother us again and in meanwhile we research Electronics. This improves the effect of Colliseums but also gives us designs for Hoover Dam; it provides Hydro Plant in every city we own; it's the cleanest form of Factory upgrade short of Solar Plant.
PS: Next turn we finish Newton's College in Nanking.Alas, with all our industrialization and huge population, the cities began to produce Pollution. To those unfamiliar, Pollution lowers Trade and Food output of a tile. Also, sufficient amount of Pollution can escalate the global warming, leading to potentially disasterous consequences. At this moment our technology has nothing that can diminish this; we can only put Hoover Dam online to minimize the pollution creation a bit.
Speaking of which, we got it up! Clean, reliable Hydro power now boosts every Chinese city (with Factory) with +50% Shields production!
And we develop Conscription; our Musketeers now got boosts in attack and defence, making them doorstoppers for anything that is not a Cannon or Cavalry.
...
Many turns pass and it's now 1720AD. Nothing exciting happens. No Aztec landings, no Viking crusades, and only Greeks keep us company by sending Catapults and Crusaders at us.
So here, have a map of Great China in that year. I had to un-zoom quite a bit (it stops rendering tile improvements at this level) to fit every Chinese city in. From Karachi in Persia to Kaifeng at edges of Siberia, Chinese culture flourishes.