Xiao Yongsheng is the owner of a small beach and a traditional Chinese house on Lingshan Island, off the coast of Qingdao city in eastern China’s Shandong province. When he decided to renovate his large home, he wondered if it was worth spending money on expensive designers and architects. Ultimately, he decided to save up and do it for free – he spent two whole years covering every inch of his 1,500-square meter house with seashells that he collected from his own beach.

“I’d always liked shells but it never struck me to use them until I was walking on a beach one morning and came across a very unusually colored clam shell and then it hit me,” said the 58-year-old. “I realised I was sitting next to a huge, free supply of beautiful building material – so why not use it?” So he began collecting every kind of shell he could find – right from tiny 3-millimeter ones to giant conches that weighed over four kilograms.

Read More »

Li Guojun is a farmer by profession, but his passion for military toys has pushed him to build a couple of life-size, fully functional tanks. Although he doesn’t know much about military engineering and he doesn’t even have access to the internet, he managed to build his own tanks by observing models that he purchased at a local toy shop. The two vehicles are 6 meters long, capable of a top speed of 12 miles per hour, and can tackle almost any kind of terrain.

“To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult to do,” said the humble farmer. “I simply needed to make the same parts that the model had, but much larger.” Li did have a little help from a friend and fellow military tank enthusiast – they built the tanks together and they now spend their spare time driving the massive vehicles outside their village in Kangping County, in northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

Read More »

In a bid to get customers addicted to his food, a scheming restaurant owner in China resorted to unethical means – he laced his noodles with parts of a poppy plant from which opium is made. When questioned by the local police, he admitted to spending 600 yuan (about $100) on two kilograms of poppy shells to secretly add to the food.

The diabolical deception came to light when Liu Juyou, a 26-year-old customer, tested positive for opiates during a routine urine test at an anti-drunk-driving program. Liu was stupefied by the result and swore that he never touched any illegal substances. But the police didn’t pay attention to his pleas and detained him for 15 days.

Read More »

Xu Shuquan, a retired primary school teacher from Chengdu city in Sichuan Province, has dedicated the past 60 years to folding paper planes. The 70-year-old now has a collection of 10,000 planes of different sizes, colors and shapes, in addition to various paper dolls and models of the 12 zodiac signs.

What’s so great about a grown man making paper planes, you ask? Well, Xu’s planes aren’t like those simple ones that kids make. He uses a complicated ancient origami-like folding technique called ‘Zhezhi’ to make a variety of aircraft models – from jumbo jets to fighter planes.

Read More »

Currently trending on Chinese social media is this uber-cool history teacher who obviously doesn’t need a map or a textbook to teach his students. The man is so good at his job that he can draw the map of the world freehand on a blackboard, without referring to a real map even once.

The teacher, whose last name is Zhao, became an internet sensation after one of his students uploaded a series of photographs on the Chinese website Sina Weibo. According to the student, who goes by the handle @xuxuxuermao, it barely took Zhao a few minutes to finish drawing the map. The student also revealed that Zhao does this on a regular basis.

Read More »

It’s that time of the year again when people do the stupidest things to get their hands on Apple’s latest iPhone. It’s been pretty crazy so far, but this story is a clear winner – a Chinese student is offering to share his girlfriend with anyone who will pay up in cash. He plans to use all the money his girlfriend earns him to pay for the highly coveted iPhone 6.

The kid recently stood outside Shanghai’s Songjiang University, holding up a sign that read: ‘Girlfriend Sharing’. To avoid being misunderstood, he also stated the ‘rules’ quite clearly. The deal, he wrote, included eating together, studying together, playing games, saving seats (in libraries/classrooms) or going on dates. The sign was pretty clear on one thing – ‘no funny business’.

“Sharing girlfriend for pocket money,” the sign read. “If you are interested, connect to personal hotspot ‘wifi sharing master’  to check out the girlfriend.”

Read More »

A man from China’s Sichuan Province wants a mother so badly that he’s offering one million yuan (a little over US$160,000) to any woman willing to take on the role. Kuan-Yin Tsui, who is in his 30s, has become an internet sensation in China, following his bizarre proposition.

Eye-witnesses say that he was actually seated at Fanghu Park with a bowl of banknotes in front of him, in the hopes of finding a mother. Behind him was a red lantern with his phone number plastered on it, and a large poster that displayed his terms – he wanted his would-be mother to be a woman who was at least 57 years old, well educated, and without a history of drug use. The final decision, he wrote, would depend on whether he felt a ‘connection’ with any of his applicants.

Juan Lei, who happened to be visiting the park at the same time, took pictures of the entire affair and posted them online. “I went to speak to him to ask if it was a real offer, and he told me I was too young for the job and he only wanted older women,” she recalled.

Read More »

When authorities in Chongqing city realized that they’re never going to be able put a stop to texting while walking, they decided to go for minimizing the risk instead. So they set up a special lane for pedestrians who are hopelessly addicted to their mobile phones.

The lane was created on Foreigner Street – a tourist hot-spot in Chongqing – in order to reduce collisions. So the sidewalk is basically divided into two halves – one labeled ‘cell phones, walk at your own risk’ and the other marked ‘no cell phones’.

Read More »

Of all the unusual ways to get a massage, this has got to be the weirdest one. 51-year-old Li Chia rolls himself down 30 concrete steps every morning at Xi’an Changle Park. Once he gets to the bottom, he rocks himself back up to the top again without getting up, using a careful, self-taught technique. He claims that by doing this he receives a thorough massage that addresses all the pressure points in his body.

“I got the idea from rolling on pebbles at a health club, and when I couldn’t find any pebbles at my local park, I decided to try the stairs and was surprised to find it really works,” Chia explained. “I have always been a great fan of Chinese massage and the possibility that pressure points can do all sorts of things including relieving stress. After all, that’s why massage is so popular,” he said. “However, I don’t believe that any masseuse will be able to give me the sort of massage I get from the impact of the stairs. I find it’s a great way to relieve pressure and has all sorts of other health benefits as well.”

Read More »

They say money can’t buy happiness, but it sure can buy empathy in China. Lonely businessmen are actually paying women up to $5 a day, just for a few kind words and a bit of understanding. A similar service is available for women as well.

Many young men and women are making quick money by offering the service through Taobao – China’s leading e-commerce website. They call themselves ‘virtual girlfriends/boyfriends’, and they’re willing to listen to their clients complaining about a tough day at work.

Male clients have a range of virtual girlfriend personalities to choose from, including ‘doll-like girls’, ‘mature women’, and ‘the girl next door’. For women, the choices include ‘men in uniform’, ‘CEO’, ‘handsome men’ and ‘comforting men’.

Read More »

29-year-old Kuang Zhengxuan is currently making waves on Chinese social media websites for his atrocious behavior – he’s actually suing his parents for not taking care of his financial needs. Despite his age, Kuang apparently expects his parents to continue ‘raising’ him, an attitude that has earned him the nickname ‘man-baby’.

Kuang is said to have quit school at a young age and studied woodworking and haircutting instead. He tried working for a while, but he says he was wrongly accused of stealing and beaten. That’s when he concluded that he has no real abilities, so he simply stopped working.

According to news reports, he lived a rather lazy lifestyle in his parents’ home. He spent all his time sleeping or playing with his cellphone. Fed up with his behavior, his parents recently asked him to leave home and fend for himself.

Read More »

Wang Zi-heng met his childhood sweetheart when he was only six years old, and the moment he set his eyes on her, he told his mother he was going to marry her. While most people would dismiss such emotions as childish fantasies, Wang never forgot his vow. It took him 18 years to fulfill his promise, but he actually married that same girl.

When he was just a six-year-old boy living with his parents in Zhengzhou City, China’s Henan, Wang Zi-heng happened to meet a pretty girl of the same age, in his neighborhood, and instantly fell in love with her. He even told his mother in all seriousness that he had met the woman of his dreams.

Wang and the girl went to the same kindergarten, played together every day and soon became inseparable. They even used to kiss secretly when they played house. The parents found the young couple so cute that they’d dressed them up in wedding clothes and clicked a picture on an old wooden bridge somewhere in the city. Soon after the picture was taken, however, Wang was forced to move away from the neighborhood to a different area, losing touch with his one true love.

Read More »

Looking at the detailed sculptures in the photos below, You’d be tempted to think they are made of wax, but believe it or not, they’re actually gourds! Enterprising Chinese farmers are able to grow these veggies into any shape they want. The most popular one is Chairman Mao, but there are many others as well – Buddha, Jesus, Santa Claus, babies, old men, monks, dragons, and pretty much anything else that attracts people’s attention.

You might think there’s some complex bioengineering or agricultural science going on behind these gourd-sculptures, but in reality, they’re just grown in simple plastic molds. It all started when a man named Xie Lyu Zhi visited the Thousand Year Temple in Sichuan Province. He claims that during the visit, a Buddhist monk told him about a dream he had about a gourd shaped like a deity.

Read More »

I’ve seen plenty of dog lovers displaying their affection in rather questionable ways, but this is a first – a woman in China loves her so much that she loves eating its hair! Wang Jing, 27, is a self-proclaimed canine lover from Heilongjiang province – she actually gave up her regular job to become a dog tailor. Two years into the role, she claims that she has swallowed over 1,000 hairballs.

It all started when Wang adopted a cute little poodle called ‘Kuku’, four years ago, just after she graduated from college. She soon became obsessed with the furry brown pup, feeding it imported dog food, pig liver-mixed rice, ice cream and dried fruit. Still, things were pretty much normal until she began to feel enormous amounts of stress from her job as a graphics designer.

Read More »

Fruit vendors in China came up with a novel idea to sell peaches for the romantic Qixi festival on August 2. They put a sexy spin on the otherwise innocent fruit by slipping some specially designed panties on them! It’s actually quite amusing, how closely the lingerie-donning peaches resemble a woman’s backside.

It all started when a fruit vendor in Nanjing decided to slip underwear onto a few of his peaches. According to Yao Xiao Yang, founder of ‘Fruithunters, he was inspired by literature. “What we understand about fruit is too simple; fruits are wonderful presents given to us by nature,” he explained.

“Fruit being sexy is widely accepted in world literature. Names of many fruits are self-evident, such as Sodom apple and Venus nipple peach. On an ancient Egyptian script pomegranate meant breasts, a French poet compared women’s butts to melons under the sunshine and James Joyce made similar comparisons in Ulysses.”

Read More »