Top 10 You Tubers 2018

No. 10: Vegetta777 — 20.8 million subscribers

Subscribers: 20.8 million

Samuel de Luque is a wildly popular Spanish YouTuber who has become known for his voiceovers of gameplay videos for "Minecraft," "Saint's Row," and "Battlefield." His signature style is to create elaborate narratives and histories for the characters in his video games to make them "like a movie."

No. 9: VanossGaming — 22.3 million subscribers

Subscribers: 22.3 million

2017 estimated salary: $15.5 million

VanossGaming (or Vanoss) is the YouTube name of Evan Fong, a 25-year-old Canadian. While not much is known about Fong, he posts comedy videos that show him playing various video games. What sets his videos apart is the quality of his editing — he frequently posts montages that compress his hours of gaming into one compact video of funny moments.

No. 8: Smosh — 22.6 million subscribers

Subscribers: 22.6 million

2017 estimated salary: $11 million

Smosh, started by comedy duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, was one of the first YouTube sensations, becoming well known for the duo's slapstick comedy videos that parodied video games and pop culture.

Anthony Padilla left the Smosh channel in June 2017 to create his own solo YouTube account, which now has over 2 million followers.

No. 7: Fernanfloo — 26.2 million subscribers

Subscribers: 26.2 million

Fernanfloo — Luis Fernando Flores — is a YouTube star from El Salvador known for his gameplay videos and wacky antics. His dogs sometimes make appearances in his videos.

No. 6: Dude Perfect — 26.5 million subscribers

Subscribers: 26.5 million

Dude Perfect is a channel from twins Cory and Coby Cotton and three of their college friends from Texas A&M, all of whom are former high school basketball players. They do sports tricks and comedy, some of which makes fun of sports stereotypes.

No. 5: Canal KondZilla — 26.6 million subscribers

Subscribers: 26.6 million

Konrad Dantas, the 29-year-old Brazilian music video director known as Canal KondZilla, has one of the fastest growing pages on YouTube. His first upload to the site came in 2012 with a music video for the Brazilian rapper Nego Blue.

No. 4: Whinderssonnunes — 26.7 million subscribers

Subscribers: 26.7 million

Whinderssonnunes, 23-year-old Whindersson Nunes, is a Brazilian YouTube star who does comedy and vlogs. He uploads parodies, songs, movie reviews, and videos about his daily life. He started making videos at 15.

No. 3: ElRubiusOMG — 27.3 million subscribers

Subscribers: 27.3 million

Rubén Doblas Gundersen, better known on YouTube as ElRubiusOMG, is a 27-year-old Spanish YouTuber. He's the most followed Spanish YouTube star. Like other popular YouTubers, Doblas Gundersen is a gamer who does walk-throughs, reviews, and more, peppered with funny commentary. He published an interactive book called "Troll" in 2014.

No. 2: Germán Garmendia (HolaSoyGerman.) — 33.1 million subscribers

Subscribers: 33.1 million

Chilean YouTuber Germán Garmendia is Latin America's biggest YouTube star. The comedian and musician has two channels in the top 20. He released a book in 2016 titled, "#Chupaelperro." He became famous with his video "Las Cosas Obvias De La Vida" ("The Obvious Things of Life").

Besides HolaSoyGerman., Garmendia has another YouTube channel called JuegaGerman, which has 24.4 million subscribers and is focused on video games.

No. 1: PewDiePie — 60.4 million subscribers

Subscribers: 60.4 million subscribers

2017 estimated salary: $12 million

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg is a boisterous Swedish video game commentator whose videos feature him playing various video games, while a box in the top corner of the screen shows his reactions to what's happening. His YouTube account has over 60 million followers.

Kjellberg came into a negative spotlight last year after a Wall Street Journal report described anti-Semitic messages in his videos, leading Disney and YouTube to cut direct business ties with him (though he hasn't been barred from YouTube).

Great Wall of China

Where is the Great Wall of China?

The Great Wall of China is easily accessible from Beijing, though the massive structure stretches from Hushan, Liaoning in the east all the way to the city of Jiayuguan, in the country’s northwest. Generally speaking, the Great Wall of China defends the country’s northernmost border. A 2012 archeological survey estimated that the wall (taking into account all the dynasties that had worked on the structure) crosses 15 provinces and extends from Xinjiang, in the northwest, to the border of Korea in the east.

How Long is the Great Wall of China?

If you were to measure all the sections ever built, a new reports suggest the Great Wall of China could be a staggering 13,170.7 miles long. The most popular (and arguably the most beautiful) section was erected during the Ming Dynasty, and runs for 5,500.3 miles between Hushan to the Jiayuguan Pass. Even if you only take into consideration the main-line length of the wall (about 2,150 miles) it’s still the record-holding longest wall in the world.

For those wondering how tall the Great Wall of China is, the general answer is that the structure’s height varies considerably, from 15 feet all the way to 39 feet. At its widest point, the wall is 32-feet-thick.

When Was the Great Wall of China Built?

It’s hard to say precisely when the Great Wall of China was built, as so many dynasties and rulers contributed to its construction. It’s thought that the first lengths of the wall were built as early as 770 B.C., though official work didn’t begin until 221 B.C., during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Most of what remains today — that 5,500-mile stretch — was built during the Ming dynasty, between 1368 and 1644.

According to the Travel China Guide, some 20 states and dynasties contributed to the construction of the Great Wall of China over the course of many millennia. 

Why Was the Great Wall of China Built?

Originally built as a wartime defense, the Great Wall of China features many towers and passes. When Emperor Qin Shi Huang first proposed the so-called Long Wall, it was meant to defend the Chinese states against nomadic tribes from the north.

During the Han Dynasty, (between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D.) the Great Wall was extended to protect the Silk Road trade. The Ming Dynasty, which “took a largely defensive stance,” according to History.com, is known for not only extending the Great Wall, but also repairing and reinforcing existing structures.

How Was the Great Wall of China Built?

Despite its name, the Great Wall is actually a collection of fortifications, some of which run parallel to one another, while others are circular or side walls. There are even portions of the Great Wall that are natural barriers, like rivers or high mountains.

Hundreds of years before any official construction on the Great Wall began, individual Chinese states built fortifications against one another, using mostly earth, wood, and stones. Construction during the Ming Dynasty made use of bricks rather than cut stone, which appears largely in the foundation and gateways.

According to History.com, Qin Shi Huang had a labor force of nearly 300,000 soldiers, commoners, and prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of men died while working on the wall, which required them to carry heavy materials on their backs up to the top of the ridgelines.

Much of the work on the oldest sections of the Great Wall were built by hand, though primitive technology — wheel barrows, ropes, basket-and-pulley-systems, and horse or oxen-drawn carts — was also used.

Can You See the Great Wall of China From Space?

Contrary to popular rumors, you can’t see the Great Wall of China from space with the naked eye. As NASA reported, however, photographs taken from the International Space Station have depicted sections of the wall under ideal conditions. The wall can be clearly photographed from space using radar imagery.