You can’t see the Great Wall from space

BEIJING: Chinese astronaut Fei Junlong told students in Shanghai: “You cannot see the Great Wall of China from space,” perhaps finally killing a myth that has existed for decades.

Fei and his companion Nie Haisheng, who were aboard Shenzhou VI during China’s second manned space mission last October, attended the opening ceremony of a space exhibition at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on Monday.

“We could not see the Great Wall from space,” Fei said while speaking to primary schoolchildren, noting that from space there is little difference between the Great Wall and its surroundings.

The Great Wall has long been noted as the only man-made object to be visible from space, despite several American astronauts denying the claim.

How the Great Wall myth began

The first mention of the Great Wall being visible from space was made in explorer Richard Halliburton’s 1938 book Second Book of Marvels, a myth later propagated by Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Both claims were made two decades before manned space missions began!

Arthur Waldron, a Great Wall expert, said that since people of the 19th century thought they could see the “canals” on Mars, people of the 20th century thought that the Great Wall could be seen from the moon.