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Choose a legend: The Great Wall of China is the one of the few man-made structures visible from orbit. Or, more remarkably, it's the only human artifice on Earth visible from the moon. Both are false, say astronauts and remote-sensing specialists. Although the Great Wall spans some 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers), it's constructed from materials that make it difficult to discern from space. The unglamorous truth is that the wall is only visible from low orbit under a specific set of weather and lighting conditions. And many other structures that are less spectacular from an earthly vantage point—desert roads, for...

Why am I not surprised? While Washington is roiled in the divisiveness of the immigration/amnesty bill, the pencil pushers are working on the building of "THE FENCE"! I'm talking about the fence that's supposed to be built along the Mexican border to cut down the number of illegal aliens sneaking into this country every day. Well, it's not really a fence, as any normal person would imagine. This is a new-fangled one. It's a high-tech "fence" that depends on towers, radar, cameras, video terminals, detectors and all kinds of technology – so much in fact, that Border Patrol agents will...

China to measure the Great Wall The structure is a series of walls first linked up over 2,000 years ago Researchers are to carry out the first detailed survey of the Great Wall of China to establish just how long the ancient barricade is, Xinhua reports. Along with checking its dimensions the four-year study, which starts in May, will map the wall's exact route. And it will check the condition of the fortification, built to protect the northern border of the Chinese Empire. The wall, the world's largest man-made structure, is estimated at over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) in length....

BEIJING, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- There will be no more partying at the Great Wall of China, officials decided after a rave party this summer drew criticism for tarnishing a national symbol. Cheng Dalin, deputy director of the China Great Wall Society, said that the local government had taken back management of the Jinling section of the Great Wall, Beijing Today reported Monday. The government leased management rights to a company called Guangda in 1997 for a 50-year period, for the sum of $740,000, China Daily said. The company had organized outdoor barbecues, dances and parties that attracted ever larger...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to build a 3,200 kilometer (2,000 mile) wall along the US border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out. ADVERTISEMENT The legislation aims to "create a border security fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico," said House of Representatives members Duncan Hunter of California and Virgil Goode of Virginia in a statement. "Prior to September 11, 2001, illegal immigration was considered a regional issue without national implications. We quickly learned on that day, however, that this is a national issue, affecting each and every American, not just those...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Daredevil skateboarder Danny Way rolled down a massive ramp at nearly 50 mph and jumped across the Great Wall of China on Saturday, becoming the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid, an event sponsor said. Way botched the landing on his first attempt but then successfully completed the jump across the 61-foot gap four times, adding 360 degree spins on his last three tries, sponsor Quiksilver, Inc. said. "I was aware of the dangers and my heart was pumping in my chest the whole time, but I managed to pull it off with...

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese soldiers sent to the Great Wall centuries ago did not just spend their time keeping alien invaders out -- they also decorated their watch towers with ancient graffiti, state media said. Archeologists studying a section of the wall in northeastern Liaoning province were surprised to find carvings of symbols representing love and peace, the Xinhua news agency reported. The historical record may offer an explanation, as it shows the general in charge of this part of the wall in the late 16th century allowed soldiers to bring their families along in order to boost morale. Each...

PARIS -- An embarrassed European Space Agency (ESA) on May 19 retracted an earlier assertion that its small Proba Earth observation satellite took a remarkably clear image of China’s Great Wall as it orbited 600 kilometers overhead. "The Great Wall’s relative visibility or otherwise from orbit has inspired much recent debate," the agency said in a May 11 press release accompanying a satellite image purporting to show "a winding segment of the 7,240-kilometer-long Great Wall of China situated just northeast of Beijing." The image turns out to have been of a river feeding into the Miyun Reservoir. "Further acquisitions of...

You CAN see the Great Wall from space, says Gene Cernan - By Felix Soh HOLD the presses! Don't change the Chinese elementary school textbooks which say that the Great Wall of China can be seen by the naked eye from outer space. Moves to amend these textbooks are afoot after the first Chinese in space, Colonel Yang Liwei, commented that he could not see the Great Wall during his historic 14 orbits around the Earth in October last year. But Col Yang, a veritable space newbie with a mere 21 hours in orbit, is mistaken - you can see...

China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, could not see the wall China is changing official thinking about a common misconception relating to its best-known ancient site. For decades, elementary schoolbooks have maintained that the Great Wall of China could be seen from space - but now the books are being rewritten. The Wall, China now admits, cannot in fact be seen from the heavens - a fact proved by China's own astronaut Yang Liwei, who became the country's first person in space last year. He said he was unable to see the ancient structure when he orbited the...

Last Updated: Wednesday, 30 July, 2003, 08:08 GMT 09:08 UK China imposes Great Wall ban By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC Beijing correspondent China says it is closing off vast sections of the Great Wall to tourists and ramblers alike in an effort to protect the ancient monument from the ravages of time and trampling. From 1 August, tourists will be restricted to areas of the wall that are restored and officially designated as tourist sites. Those who stray off the beaten track could face fines. Most of the Great Wall of China is not as it appears on the television adverts...

BEIJING, Oct 10, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A foreign tourist was attacked near the Great Wall of China north of Beijing and is "possibly dead," Chinese police said Thursday. The British Embassy confirmed a Briton was missing and that a body was found in the vicinity last week. An officer who answered the phone at the Yanqing Public Security Bureau, a police station near the Great Wall's popular Badaling site, said a foreign tourist had been "attacked and is possibly dead." He would not give his name and said he had no additional details. Alex Pinfield, a...