TARGET 090107

The New Noah's Ark
(A Chinese "Doomsday Prepper")

It looks a lot different from Noah's original one.

In the movie, "2012", mankind is threatened with annihilation by a deluge, the likes of which has never been seen. Those who survive escape the flood in a gigantic ark.

Yang Zongfu, a Chinese entrepreneur and inventor, spent two years creating what has been dubbed China’s “Noah’s Ark” – a tough, yellow bubble meant to protect riders from radiation, fire, flood, high temperatures, and whatever other natural or manmade disasters may come.

The entrepreneur told the Shanghai Daily that he invented the ball after reading that a series of disasters would strike China in 2008. So, he spent the equivalent of $236,100 U.S. dollars (RMB1.5 million) to build an “Ark” to insure personal safety for himself and his family.

Interior diagram of a single person model

It is over 4 yards in diameter, has 300 springs, 75 airbags, and weighs 6 metric tons. It has seats you can strap yourself into, windows and a ventilation system. Three people could survive for up to a year on the pilot biscuits, water and oxygen it carries.

The idea of this ark grabbed the popular imagination, particularly given the many floods China has experienced in recent years. One man from Shanxi province in the country’s north is said to have booked 15 of Zongfu’s pods.

A demonstration

Yang, 32, was so confident in his design that he climbed into it and had it dropped from a crane onto a hillside, where it rolled down and crashed into a stone wall, bounced high over the wall and then into a pit of water. He said that the field test ".. proved to be a success because it didn't shake at all inside. It's safe, very safe," he said.

Emerging safe and victorious

The pricey pod looked rather dented after rolling down a slope, through a stone wall and into water. Alas, it seems the disaster dodger had failed to prepare for a water-based apocalypse, as the pod's door opened when it hit the shallow lake, leaving it battered and far from water-tight. Yang, however, emerged unscathed except for a cut on his chin, caused only by improperly wearing his helmet.

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Whats On Ningbo
China Daily
Whats On Ningbo (2nd article)