When I was a child, my parents would often find me with a shovel in the back yard, happily digging my way to China. I never got there, obviously, but spent many enjoyable hours wondering what China was really like, if it was anything like my favorite story book, "Tiki-Tiki-Tembo," and if people there walked upsidedown on the bottom of the Earth. Usually, after I got a foot or so into the ground, I would get distracted by an ant colony, or a sparkly granitic rock, or an unusually large earthworm, or a mysterious root tens of yards away from any tree.
I'm in my 40s now, and I've never yet made it to China, though I've spent many enjoyable hours in various Chinatowns, wandering through the shops full of vivid colors and smells. I've also learned that China is not at the bottom of the Earth, after all, and that tunneling straight through would bring you out into the south Indian Ocean, like Miss Frizzle and her class in the Magic Schoolbus books.
Still, I cherish the fantasy of taking a shortcut right down through the middle of the earth, through all of the great lithic layers and molten core, surfacing in an exotic setting without having go all the way around the world in 80 days. Here's a very simple puzzle to honor that dream.
Simply this: Go to the following coordinates... and dig!
S 46° 51.830 E 57° 43.043
7/11/2010: By popular request, I've added a star of difficulty, and a geochecker. Check your answers for this puzzle at Geochecker.com.