8 Great Wall of China Misconceptions (ft. Interrobang)

Hey Dan, what's with all the Great Wall stuff? Well Shelly, I'm getting ready for my trip to go to China. That's cool. Looking forward to visiting the wall, huh? Uh, yeah. It's gonna be awesome. It's the only man-made object that you can see from the moon. Actually, you can't see it from the moon. Wait, what? You totally can. No, you can't. Uh, yeah, you totally can. I learned it in school. Actually, you can't. But that's a pretty common misconception. It came from a blurb in Ripley's Believe It or Not that you could see it from the moon. But that was way before anybody actually went to the moon. The moon is like 200,000 miles away from the Earth. Earth pretty much looks like a giant blue and white ball from the moon. Okay, so the moon is pretty far away. But you can still see the Great Wall from space, right? Nope. Not even from low Earth orbit? Not with the naked eye. Back in 2004, astronaut Leroy Chow took some photos from the International Space Station with a zoom lens where you can kind of see some sections of the wall if the picture is blown up and you know where to look. But it's still pretty hard to see because it's so narrow and the rock, stone, and dirt used to build the wall blend in with the surroundings. Anyway, astronauts have repeatedly said you can't see it from space. Man, I can't believe they lied to me like that. Who's they? You know what? I'm not going to let this get to me. It's still going to be an awesome trip. It's still one of the Seven Wonders of the World, right? Actually, it's kind of not really. What? The original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was a list made up by the ancient Greeks. It was kind of like the Lonely Planet Guide of the time. But the Greeks didn't know about the Chinese. Plus, at the time, the Great Wall was more like a bunch of small, unconnected walls. So it might not have been that impressive anyway. Wait, what do you mean the Great Wall was a bunch of small, unconnected walls? I thought it was built as one giant wall by the first emperor of China! Actually, the Great Wall still isn't even one giant wall even today. It's a bunch of different walls that were built or rebuilt by different rulers in different dynasties. The parts of what we now call the Great Wall were built in the spring and autumn period originally. But the wall building really picked up during the Warring States period. Then when Qin Shi Huang became the first emperor and founded the Qing Dynasty, he joined together a bunch of the walls that were on the northern border and expanded it. But the Qing Dynasty wall is pretty much gone now. Hold up. The Qing Wall is gone? I was looking forward to standing on the Great Wall just like the first emperor as the walls of my kingdom stretch as far as the eye can see! Okay, Dan. I'm glad to see those how-to-be-a-megalomaniac classes are working out for you. Actually, the Great Wall doesn't have all of those picturesque stone towers the entire way across. The builders used local materials, so it went from stone and brick to packed earth and mud bricks. In the desert, they even used layers of gravel and palm fronds. Anyway, the Great Wall you're going to see in Beijing is from the Ming Dynasty about 1,800 years after the Qin Shi Huang. And some of it was even rebuilt in the 20th century. So those walls might be as young as you are. You're ruining all of my dreams, Shelley! I still can't believe my history teacher lied to me about how you can see it from space! Well, hey, my history teacher told me that the Chinese built the Great Wall to keep out the Europeans and that's why China's so backward. So history teachers can be wrong. Yeah, to be fair, she was an American history teacher, so it wasn't in her wheelhouse. But still, I think this is more of a misconception about Chinese history than the Great Wall. Sure, some time periods like the late Ming were super inward-looking, but others were incredibly open. The Tang Dynasty had foreigners as high-level government officials. We shouldn't see the Great Wall as a symbol of China's monolithic view of the West. Right, because it was there to repel the Mongol invaders! Actually, it wasn't that good at that either. I mean, they wouldn't have put so much effort into building and defending the wall if it was a total failure. But northern nomads found their way through the weak spots where they just bribed the guards. Famously, the Ming soldiers at the Shanghai Pass let the Manchurian army in, which is how they conquered Beijing. So the Great Wall of China is actually a series of walls built at different times out of random materials, not because the Chinese hated foreigners, but to defend themselves, And you can't see it from space. Right, so why is it called the Great Wall? Actually, Chinese people don't call it the Great Wall. It's called Changchen, or the Long Wall in Chinese, and they didn't even see it as this amazing accomplishment. It wasn't until the Europeans came and started totally geeking out over this big wall that the Chinese were like, huh, maybe we've got something here. And now it's become a symbol of national pride. Dang, well I guess at least I know a lot more about the Great Wall now, and I'm still going to have an awesome trip. Dude, I can't wait to walk down those ancient Beijing Hutong alleys where people have lived for hundreds of years. Actually... Guys, check out this new channel. It's called Interrobang! For the interesting, the quirky, and the freaking awesome. You know what, Shelley? I'm still bummed about that space thing. You really can't see it from space. Dan, the International Space Station is orbiting 250 miles above the Earth. The Great Wall is an average of 20 feet wide. That's like seeing a pencil on the sidewalk from the top of the Empire State Building. Wanna go try? Okay, so if we can see it from there, that means we can see it from space? Well, it would be just as difficult as trying to see it from space. But you're saying that it's possible! Okay, it's possible. Give me some hope. Let's go check it out. Okay.