Why "Dig to China" Is a Myth: The Science of Antipodes

The saying "dig a hole deep enough and you'll reach China" is a popular childhood myth, but it's geologically impossible.

• Earth's Structure: The crust is only 5–70 km thick; below lies the mantle (2,900 km) and core (3,500 km radius). Temperatures and pressures make drilling through impractical.
• Antipodes: The point directly opposite a location on the globe is its antipode. For most of the contiguous U.S., the antipode is in the Indian Ocean—not China.
• China's Antipode: China's antipodes fall mostly in South America (Argentina, Chile).

The phrase likely originated as a playful way to illustrate Earth's sphericity and the idea of "the other side of the world."