The World's Worst Noah's Ark

Take a look at the picture above. What is it? Part of a grain silo? A smokestack? Some kind of holding tank? Unless you guessed "Noah's Ark," you're flat-out wrong. A while back I reported on Johan Huibers, a Dutch man who has built an enormous replica of the Ark using the dimensions and instructions found in the Bible. This Ark, on the other hand, was cobbled together by a Chinese welder and turned out looking considerably less impressive.

Kho Jian, a metalworker from Louhe in Henan province, central China, is designing and building the craft using re-salvaged and converted oil tanks.

The 'Noah's Ark' will come at a cost of £20,000, and will be fitted with a range of mod-cons including a kitchen and bathrooms.

It will also use technology that is employed for space travel in order to keep it watertight - while also providing doors and windows.

'He believes we are heading for a world flood and he wants his own ark to save himself and his family,' said Kho, who aims to have the finished craft ready for delivery soon.

'He even wants wheels on it so he can tow it around and never has to risk being away from his ark for when the disaster comes.'

Here's the part I really don't understand. This thing is supposed to be 30 feet long and judging from the door in the image maybe 8-10 feet around. That's not very much space. 20,000 British pounds is about $30,000, and let me tell you, for that amount of money you can buy a used houseboat complete with trailer that's both bigger and a lot more comfortable. I know, because I was pricing them out last spring. So what's the point? If you want a boat and you have that much money sitting around, just buy a boat.

At the very least we can take comfort in the fact that China is nowhere near closing their Ark technology gap with the West.