# Dig down to China?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 15, 1999, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303 "1999-06-15T04:22:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/1 "1999-06-15T04:22:00Z")
Who came up with the idea that if we here in the U.S. were to dig straight down, we’d end-up doing the groundhog bit in China?
The reflected U.S. would lie almost entirely in the south Indian Ocean between the southern tip of Africa and the southwest corner of Australia. Not only that, most of it would be south of Africa and Australia, not very far from Antarctica!
Conversely, if someone drilled down from Beijing, they’d come up at the southern tip of South America.
Are we Northern hemisphere chauvinists, or what?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/2 "1999-06-15T04:35:00Z")
Damn! Note to self: Exchange PRC yuan for Malagasy francs.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/3 "1999-06-15T05:26:00Z")
There you go! All of those cartoons where a character digs to China are taking place in Argentina or Chile. I never knew there were so many people with generic Midwest accents living in Tierra del Fuego. 😃
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“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/4 "1999-06-15T06:42:00Z")
I dont know who came up with it, probably a simplistic view of China = East and America = West.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/5 "1999-06-15T12:16:00Z")
Neo, it’s more like China=far away. Throughout most of modern history, China has always represented a far off and mysterious place. I guess the idea of digging to China wasn’t meant to be geographically accurate, but rather give the idea the person has gone a great distance.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/6 "1999-06-15T15:31:00Z")
Foolish me, I always thought if you dug down far enough, you’d build a volcano in your back yard.
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**Jim Petty
_A Snappy message should appear here_**
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 15, 1999, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/7 "1999-06-15T15:57:00Z")
Sure, but if you fell down the hole, you’d accelerate and accelerate until you reached the middle, when…
Actually, I thought the centre of the earth was a hollowed-out otherworld, full of dinosaurs and cavepersons and such, called Pellucidar…
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 19, 1999, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dig-down-to-china/1303/8 "1999-06-19T02:14:00Z")
See the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang for “China Syndrome.” I’ve traced this term back to at least 1926.
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Barry A. Popik