Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- A Chinese villager has spent almost $ 320,000 on constructing six floating survival pods that are built to withstand tsunamis , earthquakes and other natural disasters , Hong Kong 's South China Morning Post has reported . The pods , weighing four tons each and consisting of two thick layers of fire-proof and shock-resistant carbon fiber , sit in Liu Qiyuan 's yard in Qiantun , a small village in the northern Chinese province of Hebei . With December 21 looming , a date when some have predicted the apocalypse would occur , the bizarre contraptions have attracted a huge amount of attention , but Liu told The South China Morning Post that his motivation for building them went further back . While the Hollywood disaster movie '2012 ' and the 2004 Asian tsunami were factors , Liu said he ultimately made the decision to build the pods after his village was swept by doomsday rumors in the early 1990s . Despite assuring his young daughter that the end was not nigh , Liu said the girl asked him to build an indestructible house . Now , Liu is making good on that promise . The airtight spheres have varying interiors , but they all come with oxygen tanks and seatbelts , and each is equipped to hold about 14 people . They are designed to remain upright when floating in water . Some people in his village thought he was crazy when he began construction in March , and both his daughter and wife tried to talk him out of the project . But Liu is hoping that governments and international organizations will adopt his pods and use them in natural disasters . `` Men do n't just live to make money , '' the South China Morning Post quoted him as saying . `` My design could be used by cruise ships to save lives . If anyone survives a shipwreck with my device , I will call it a good investment . ''
A Chinese villager has built six 'survival pods ' The pods are built to withstand tsunamis or earthquakes . The pods were partly inspired by the disaster movie '2012 ' and the 2004 Asian tsunami . It cost almost $ 320,000 to build the six pods .