| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| China | 9,371,225 km² | 14,619,111 km² | 1.6× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew China at about 14,619,111 km² km². The truth is 9,371,225 km² km² — a difference of 56%% that school atlases carried for centuries.