Oriens » China

Chinese homemade submarine

admin1 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:27:28 +0000

A Chinese labourer with only a basic school education has made a submarine at home. Tao Xiangli made the 1.6 tonnes submarine mostly from metal barrels and improvised parts by hand. Tao said the basic submarine cost him £2,200, the equivalent of a year’s pay. Tao is now in the final phase of debugging the submarine and hopes it will make its maiden voyage within the next week in Beijing. He says it can dive to a maximum depth of 10 meters, and should be quite safe.

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Car left high and dry

admin1 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:38:25 +0000

A Chinese family who refused to move for a government project have been left high and dry – after their car was left stranded on a 50ft column of earth.

Officials had decided to level several hills in mountainous Hanjiagen village in northern China’s Shanxi province to make way for new homes, reports the Red Network.

Qu Liming, 60, refused to move his family from their home on one of the hills – but workers started digging out the soil around his house.

“My son drove his car in front of the house to stop the bulldozers from digging the soil, but unexpectedly, they dug out all the soil around the car, leaving the car perched on top of an isolated island,” he said.

Now the family cannot drive their silver Chevrolet – and have to climb a vertical cliff face to reach their home.

“Each day we really have to climb into the house, since the soil has been removed, and it’s a vertical cliff for us,” added Qu.

“I built the house hoping to spend the rest of my life there, but now we have no neighbours, no way in and out, no communications. What should I do?”

Village officials refused to comment.

Mona Lisa comes to life

admin1 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:45:57 +0000

This Mona Lisa chats with you in Bejing.

A visitor looks at a three-dimensional, holographic version of the 16th century portrait “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci as it indicates not to move any closer in Beijing’s Alive Gallery August 21, 2009. This Mona Lisa is a digital re-creation courtesy of the Alive Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, and is traveling to China on a three-city tour, along with a collection of other walking, talking masterworks from throughout the ages