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Subscribe to RSSBEIJING — Much like in the rest of the world, the coming "doomsday" supposedly preordained by the Mayans to strike earth Friday at the end of a 5,125-year calendar has been something of a running joke in China.
The subject this week has been easily a top-10 trending topic on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, with users sharing hundreds of thousands of jokes, cartoons and other comments about the end of days.
One popular doomsday cartoon shared by Taiwanese alternative rock singer Ashin, showing a mock weather report predicting fire and brimstone for Friday, was forwarded more than 109,000 times and drew almost 25,000 comments.
Not everybody thinks the end of the world is funny, though. A poll conducted by Ipsos-Reuters in 21 countries earlier this year claimed that as much as 20 percent of China’s population believed that the Mayan calendar correctly predicted this month as the end of the world. That percentage was markedly higher than in the second country on the list, Turkey (at 13 percent), or in the United States (12 percent).
A farmer in China has created survival capsules equipped with power generators and food supplies. NBCNews.com's Jay Gray reports.
The government is taking one aspect of the doomsday talk seriously; it has reportedly rounded-up members of a religious group calling for the toppling of the Communist Party.
The group, known as the “Almighty God,” has called for a "decisive battle" to slay the "big red dragon," a reference to the Book of Revelation and the organization’s name for the Chinese Communist Party.
Nearly 1,000 members of the sect have been arrested, The New York Times reported. NBC News could not independently verify the number of detentions, but Chinese state media also reported that authorities had detained around 1,000 members over some seven provinces, Reuters reported.
This is not the first time that China has dealt with a fast-moving Christian cult it deems a risk to party rule. In fact, according to the newspaper, “Almighty God” has its roots in a sect that claimed it had 300,000 adherents called "Lightning from the East," according to Time Magazine in 2001.
Lightning from the East propagated the belief that Jesus had returned to earth in the form of a 30-year old Chinese woman who had written a third testament of the Bible and promised salvation from the coming apocalypse for all who joined her.
AFP - Getty Images, file
Lu Zhenghai of Xinjiang said he wasn't necessarily worried about "doomsday," but he thought "something" bad would happen today. So he built this ark.
Money from fear
Many Chinese, meanwhile, have seen opportunities to cash in on the apocalyptic mania.
After watching the Hollywood disaster film "2012," in which China leads the way in building arks to save the rest of the world, Liu Qiyuan, a former furniture maker living just outside Beijing, began conceptualizing scaled-down arks that could be marketed to consumers equally concerned about the end of days.
With the help of 10 workers, Liu designed and built metal spheres covered in fiberglass and fitted with an on-board engine. Supposedly strong enough to handle a battering from a catastrophic tsunami or earthquake, the capsules are designed to house 14 survivors and enough food and water for five months at sea.
The cost of such peace of mind is $50,000 each. Even if the end of the world does not come Friday, Liu is optimistic that he will recoup his reported $288,000 investment by marketing his life capsules to China’s navy.
One man who has gone all-in on his disaster convictions is Lu Zhenghai from China’s far western province of Xinjiang. For the past two years, Lu has been working to build an ark measuring 65 feet and weighing around 80 tons that could comfortably hold 50 people and a two-year stock of food and medicine.
"I don’t believe in the doomsday, but I do believe something is going to happen on December 21st," Lu told NBC News, "I don’t know what could happen and where, but I want to be ready just in case."
Having left his job, cashed-in his savings and sold his apartment to help pay for this family refuge, Lu has been living at his parents’ home with his wife and daughter as he makes final preparations on the ark. The vessel has already cost over $240,000 to build.
Though Lu talks happily about progress on the ship, he seems far more excited to talk about the media attention and visitors his ark has been attracting.
"Hundreds of people have come to see my ark," Lu said, adding that a Hong Kong television station was planning to film the ark, presumably mere moments before disaster strikes the earth.
NBC News’ Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
There will come a time the the world as we know it will end.
It's just not 12-21-12
I concur , but just in case I stocked up on Brando. Its got electrolytes.
And you know that how?
The human race will end well before the world ends. The world will go on to be a cold rock for eternity or if lucky our sun will explode and spare it that fate.
Darn, I didn't know the world coming to a end tomorrow. Is it to late to
spend my life saving and max out all my credit cards. Oh well, if the
world does end, the government will get me out of dept. OH WAIT,
I'm supporting everyone else
Kinda hard to get a fresh new rock to print your calander on, ain't like you can just run down to staples..
they guy just run out of room on the rock..that's all
What time tomorrow is this supposed to happen? Do I need to bother setting my alarm to get up for work in the morning?
LOL. That's the question. Esp because it's already "tomorrow" in China, isn't it?
Look up the time in Hawaii to see when Dec. 21 ends, and then you can breathe easy...
until the Old Calendar date (still celebrated in Russia) is finished on Jan. 3rd, which is 13 days later on their calendar. I notice that Jan. 3rd is a date of an annual meteor shower, and a date that NASA lists an asteroid fly-by. I'm not that serious though; nobody knows the time of the end; my Bible tells me that.
What time?
I want to be the first one too laugh my head off.
Happy end of the world everyone......ho.....ho.....haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! ha ha haaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
he he he too..................its my time now........ha ha ha ha ha.
I have a Hatteras with twin Detroit Diesels, I came to this place through super storm Sandy, I'm sticking with it. It was brutal, but we arrived unscathed, essentially, had some tidying up. That's what she was designed to do, survive, unlike the Bounty, which sank off Cape Hatteras. My thoughts go out to the drowned crew-persons. You never know 'till you go out there what you're going to get.
Isn't it December 21st right about NOW in New Zealand?- - - Do they "go" first ??
11:42 AM
Friday, December 21, 2012 (NZDT)
Time in Wellington, New Zealand
12:27 PM
Chatham Islands (CHADT)
The worlds races have many differences; yet stand united in their craziness. :)
I wonder if I can call in dead tomorrow. Hey boss man, the world coming to a end.
Do I have to come to work.
If you're reading this on Thursday, keep in mind that it's already Friday in New Zealand, and it's still on the map. If it's Friday, a look out the window may be reassuring.
If it's Saturday, and no major calamity has occurred, then relax and go celebrate the beginning of the 14th baktun with the Mayans.
I donno... there is supposed to be bad weather tomorrow. I might call in sick anyway.
Nothing but opportunity $$ because $$ is what it's all about, now go get some before it's too late.
I will be pissed if it all ends tomorrow. I just finished my Christmas shopping today. :/
The world can't end I have to work tomorrow!
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The end of the world began when the world began.
It's just a real, real long ending.
well since it is already the 22nd in parts of the world its all good...I think the dooms dayers back in the day were basing it on a planet alignment that has happened roughly 200 times since this calendar was carved...and also they found another calendar when they moved the first rock...hence it was a calendar
I'm a Dumbass for getting all my Christmas shopping done early.......
12% of Americans are really really stupid.
From the last election I'd say it was a few more than 12%....
To all the doomsday believers: BON VOYAGE!!!
Please do us all a favor and wait until you are on the "other side" before taking your clothes off.
The BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS PLOY EVER!! Even in Communist China they know about this crap...
Yeah, we should be so lucky. Sorry folks, but the 22nd will come just as miserably as any other day. We can only hope for an end to this madness...
I think it was around the 1880's that some proto-Pat-Robertson-type-guy predicted the coming of Christ and named the supposed very day. Hundreds of the trusting devout gave away, destroyed or abandoned all of their belongings, donned white "angelic" robes and climbed to high places to wait, feeling totally prepared for The End. I could never find out what happened to those people; historically, apparently, it's a wash. Fast forward: to the 1980's and televangelists, "preachin' prosperity", convince tens of thousands of the Viewing Faithful to spend every cent they have citing "...returning tenfold...". Watched my elderly great-uncle and great-auntie, married over 60 years, lose their home and every humble belonging by heeding those hucksters.
So, what's new?
Pass the scotch.
Another case of lunacy that gives Christians a bad name.
Any true Christian who knows their Bible knows that God plainly states that NO ONE knows the day when the end will come. We have signs to go by, and a lot of them are happening as the Bible says, but no human being has the inside info on which specific day.
Michigan Deb,Those signs that you refer to in the bible were written by a common man.Living and following those same so called signs is called superstitions.Same nonsense as the Mayan calendar.
I do June 8th 2053.
Damn, and I just got done with my Christmas shopping too. Oh well, better luck next year.