Noah's Ark, Hong Kong

Nestled underneath Hong Kong’s Tsing Ma Bridge is a gigantic full-size replica of Noah’s Ark, the famed biblical ship that rescued pairs of living animals from a global flood.

During the late 1990s, the Hong Kong government planned to construct a sprawling suspension bridge connecting the bustling city to a new airport across the Rambler Channel. Complicating matters, however, was an undeveloped island which would be roofed by the new bridge. Miraculously, a unique three-way partnership between the Hong Kong government, a pair of billionaire developer brothers, and a group of Christian organizations emerged with a plan to cover the island with a “remarkable” theme park.

The proposed visions for this theme park ranged from the outrageous to the unreasonable before government officials received a design for a massive ark overlooking the water, a design which was scrawled by an eight-year-old Hong Kong girl. The recreated Noah’s Ark was built precisely to the biblical dimensions with a length of 300 cubits (450 feet), and the park markets itself as a creationist and family-centric vacation destination. Though the majority of this theme park’s distinctive attraction is the menagerie of 67 fiberglass animal couples, the theme park houses a wide breadth of activities and exhibits from a solar observatory telescope tower to a seaside café. The attraction encompasses areas such as the outdoor Nature Garden featuring live, rare animal species, an indoor jungle gym with swings and climbing areas called Noah’s Adventureland, and a resort on the top floor for lodging and dining.

The park’s management unabashedly and hyperbolically promotes the ark as a refuge for visitors that may be in the midst of their own personal “floods.”