Doomsday fears eased with arks and aliens

The end of the world is just weeks away, if you believe interpretations of Mayan prophecies, and one man knows how he is going to survive it: In a giant boat.

Lu Zhenghai, a man in China, has spent a million renmimbi (€122,000) to build a boat that will measure 20m long and weigh about 80 tons once it’s finished.

Worried that a giant flood would be part of the apocalypse on Dec 21, Lu started building the ark in 2010. The project isn’t quite finished and, if the world doesn’t come to an end in December, Lu hopes the ark will attract tourists or find a second life as a ferry.