I heard an Aussie said today "... Dig a hole straight to China...". I have always thought that was straightly a North American saying, wrong but close enough. It would be way off if you start from Australia, keeping to the spirit it means through the center of the earth. I mean, do Japanese say that too?
So, where are you from that you have heard of this phrase? And, if it is used in your local culture?
I always assumed it was from Britain too. Although, the other side of the world from China is actually around Chile, so I doubt it was ever "correct" (i.e. I don't think the saying came from Chile).
The other side of the world from Britain is the Pacific Ocean near Antipodes Island, southeast of New Zealand. The other side of the world from where I live is somewhere in the south Indian Ocean. We were lied to as kids!
The truth is that the sun never sets on the British Empire, so if a British person says they are going to dig a hole to a particular part of the world, they are free to choose any part of the world in which to begin their hole, and thus will invariably be able to dig their hole along the correct vector to reach their desired destination through the centre of the earth. However, this is not usually done, as Britannia rules the waves, and ocean-borne travel is generally believed to be considerably faster than construction of a man-sized passage along the diameter of the earth. The eponymous hole to China, was, however, attempted by railway pioneer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1853 as a means to convey opium to the Far East. The project was abandoned the following year when the destruction of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in the Crimea meant that no one was available to carry the lanterns into the increasinly-dark tunnel. The failure of this venture resulted in the now-common expression in the English-speaking world, referring to any overly-ambitious project, especially one related to the removal of earth in children's backyard sandboxes, an increasingly common practice in Victorian England (Sigmund Freud famously attributed this phenomenon to children's universal desire for their mothers). The episode is also said to have been the inspiration for Jules Verne's classic 1864 work, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, as well as having instigated the development of the ironclad warship by the British Admiralty, which was believed necessary to traverse the waterways of the earth's inner mantle under the intense pressure of the volcanic gasses contained therein. As for why the expression has remained in such widespread use to this day,
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Quote:The general concept of the term "zhōngguó" (China's name in Chinese) originated from the belief that China was the "center of civilization" or "center of the world."
Thus
All holes lead to China
And here's the map to your upside down counterparts.
![[Image: Antipodes_equirectangular.svg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Antipodes_equirectangular.svg)