Awesome China

There’s a legend that says China’s Jade Emperor asked the animals of the zodiac to race across the country to decide their order. Filmmaker Law Chen created a bold, modern interpretation of this story in a Chinese New Year campaign for ICBC, but subsequently released it as a reminder to wear masks to protect our safety.

A look inside a factory in China where Odear tennis balls are made. First, sheets of rubber are cut into pellets which are then molded into semi-circles. Then, the sections are combined, hand-wrapped in felt, and then heat-sealed together. Now all we need is a tennis racket to play with.

Photographer Morten Rustad takes us on an 8K time-lapse trip to China. From awe-inspiring natural rock formations, to traditional villages, and massive cities, the vivid imagery is a feast for the eyeballs and a workout for your display. Want to shoot time-lapse like the pros? Check out Morten’s course Master Time-Lapse.

Chief Hoonigan Ken Block is back to shred some more Toyo Tires, drifting through the most dangerous road in China – the 99 turn thriller that snakes through Tianmen Mountain. Watch in awe as he slides sideways through every corner in his Hoonitruck, a highly-modded 1977 Ford F-150 that makes 914hp.

Take a tour of the beautiful and serene Seashore Library, which sits along China’s Bohai Sea near Nandaihe Pleasure City. Architect Dong Gong’s design was designed to provide each occupant of its reading room with an unobscured view of the beach outside, and a sense of peace and solitude for each visitor.

We’re always fascinated by construction projects where they move buildings rather than tear them down and rebuild them. Recently workers in Xiamen, China took a massive 30,000-ton bus station, and successfully rotated it 90 degrees to its new home to make way for new high-speed railway station.

Here in the US, cotton candy is typically just a big fluffy pillow of spun sugar, but in China, it’s often turned into amazing works of edible art by street vendors. Watch as this candy chef in Chongqing, China turns sugar into an intricate multi-color flower. Oh the humanity at 8:11!

Inspired by early filmmakers like Eadweard Muybridge, James Medcraft created his hypnotic short film by slicing imagery captured from a moving vehicle in Hong Kong. Like reassembling slivers of shredded paper, he creates a work of art from what would otherwise be mundane imagery.

As part of The Grand Tour‘s third season, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May went to China to explore the country’s impressive road network. Built over mountains, valleys, lakes and seas, the motorways already span more than 84,000 mi.

For over 150 years, Hong Kong was under British rule. When the terms of an agreement expired, it was returned to China. But how does a city with over 7.4 million people change countries? Wendover Productions explains some of the finer points of the transition.

Photographer and world traveler Ivan Bondarenko takes us on an aerial tour of one of Earth’s most spectacular locales, the lush, greenery-covered limestone hills near Guilin China, reminding us yet again how amazing our planet is. Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone.

Half as Interesting explains the world’s worst traffic jam, which happened on China’s G110 highway in 2010 and lasted an incredible 12 days. Trucks carrying coal clogged up the road, then inexplicably, 5 days into the epic jam, planned maintenance work began on the road.

While the building has yet to be completed, we still are wowed by the idea that a 400 foot-tall skyscraper has a working 350 foot-tall waterfall built into its facade. The Liebian International Building is being built in Guiyang, China. Sadly, they can’t run it all the time.

During a recent event over the City Wall of Xi’an, China, a team of engineers from EHang launched a whopping 1,374 illuminated quadcopters, transforming the night sky into a dynamic and colorful airborne light show. We wonder if any of them bumped propellers.

Jessica Kingdon’s award-winning short film gives us a glimpse at the lives of the vendors and shop owners at China’s Yiwu Market, the world’s largest wholesale consumer goods mall. The mall has five floors and is nearly 5 miles long.

The idea of riding a bicycle 3400 miles across China is daunting enough, but Ed Pratt did that with one fewer wheel, and carrying his camping gear. In this video, he completes his epic journey as he approaches the Vietnam border. Check out previous episodes from his trip here.

Located in the Wulingyuan region of Zhangjiajie, China, the Bailong (aka “Hundred Dragons”) Elevator is a 1,070 foot-tall glass elevator. While some might question the impact it has on nature, it’s an incredible feat of engineering, and provides astounding views.

Great Big Story introduces us to Yu Zhilin and his son Yu Lingyun, both of whom are skilled at metalwork. Along the way, they found they had an affinity for building giant Transformers out of scrap parts from old cars. More recently, they started building amazing original designs.

This guy on a Chinese TV show turns in what is arguably the strangest performance of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep that we’ve ever heard. We don’t know whether to give him a standing ovation, or just stare at the screen like a deer caught in the headlights.

One of the stranger cooking machines we’ve seen – this thing takes in grain, salt, and water, then applies heat and pressure to make rice crackers. The resulting explosion causes them to fly out of its mouth like jet-powered frisbees. Here’s a similar machine.

A look at a long-standing tradition in China’s Nanshan Village, where a handful of people have passed down the technique to create these long and skinny noodles, which are quite time-consuming and complex to make. We’re having some serious carb cravings now.

While laser engraving is typically done on wood or acrylic, this video shows a laser system which is used to add patterns or a pre-washed look to blue jeans. The completed fashions aren’t our style, but the tech is really cool. Plus, the music just makes it so much more dramatic.

To remove an aging overpass in Nanchang China, a veritable army of Hyundai excavation machines lined up and worked to rapidly demolish the old structure – removing the entire bridge in about 2 days, and reopening to traffic in 56 hours. (Thanks Hubert!)