Transcript and Answers to Great balls of China to defend against 'apocalypse'

 It’s one Chinese man's home made way of surviving an apocalypse, a waterproof, iceproof, fireproof survival pod. Liu Qiyuan claims it’s made to withstand the force of tsunamis and earthquakes and to enable people to escape shipwrecks. A simple crash test proves its strength. 

"We've all seen if you put a ping pong ball into water 50 meters deep. Even though the skin of the ping pong ball is very thin it can withstand the pressure and won't break. I used the same principle to design the pods." 

Mr Liu, a furniture maker from a small village just outside Beijing, claims 30 people can live for up to two months in his insulated pods made of steel, fibreglass and foam. There's enough room for food, water, supplies of oxygen… it's even fitted with a propeller. He started work on the pods earlier this year, in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and after watching the disaster film 2012, inspired by prophecies of an apocalypse linked to the end of a Mayan calendar on December 21st. 

"If there really is some kind of apocalypse… then if you use my product it has the ability to save people and I think that would be my contribution to humanity." 

Liu says his life savings and borrowed money have gone into making each of the seven pods, costing him almost 50 thousand US dollars each. 

"Only my daughter supports me, practically everyone else thinks I'm crazy." 

"When I first heard about my dad’s plan, I thought it was great, because he'd promised to build me a spherical house since I was small, and I really support him, I help him by providing ideas." 

Liu has not sold any of the pods. But says they're available to anyone interested, especially China's marine authorities. 

"If only the Maritime department could pay more attention to the pods and promote them, then we may never hear of 'sea disasters' again." 

In the meantime, Liu says he's working on a second generation survival pod, with a stronger steel structure and more gadgets. He and his daughter may be the envy of all his neighbours if days do come to an end. 

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