Second Life’s Great Wall of China

You can walk on the Great Wall of China, or at least your avatar can, in Second Life‘s Mao Island, "Home of the Great Wall of China". You can even buy the complete wall, or parts of it, to erect on your Second Life land!

Mao Island, despite having a name that evokes ghosts of China‘s Communist Cultural Revolution, is a decidely non-Communist place that would make old Mao turn in his grave. It’s part of the Hosoi-Ichiba cluster of thoughtfully designed and constructed Asian-themed islands. The other islands are Japanese. I’ll be reporting on them in the future.

My first visit to Second Life’s Great Wall was unsettling. It’s surrounded on all sides by water, not at all like the remote desert and mountain regions of the original Great Wall of China, and a voice within me kept saying, "this isn’t right". That voice soon faded. After all, creating a wall that’s the SL equivalent.of a wall thousands of miles long and guarded by over a million men isn’t reasonable. The Great Wall on Mao Island is an excellent fascimile. Built of 3592 primitives and encircling most of an entire sim, it’s an impressive structure in its own right.

The picture on the right is of the moon rising over part of the Great Wall, seen from the bridge leading from the landing point. The entire wall, including its guard houses, was built in only about two weeks by creator Amiryu Hosoi working alone. She did it as a commission from an RL friend. Before undertaking the project, she searched 3,000 photos of China’s Great Wall to assure the greatest possible accuracy in design and textures.

When you first land on Mao Island, you are in a guard building that houses nearly all the commercialism you’ll find. There are vendors for traditional Asian clothing, buildings, and the Great Wall itself. You can buy the entire thing for 59,500 Lindens, or individual components. The picture on the left is of a traditional sampan for sale outside the building. You’ll have to jump off the bridge onto the beach to see it close-up. Any Second Life member wishing to visit the Great Wall can teleport there by clicking slurl.com/secondlife/Mao/150/142/31.