From Canada to China, millions around the world are preparing for the fateful day of December 21, 2012, which many believe marks the end of a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count on the Mayan calendar. As doomsday "preppers" rush to stock their homes with bottled water, food rations, gas masks and weapons for an impending apocalypse, nobody is preparing for the end of the world in Mexico or Guatemala; instead, they're bracing for a tsunami of spiritual visitors.
Mayan doomsday 2012
Photos: Doomsday preparations... and celebrations
20 Dec 2012
Inspired by Hollywood doomsday film ‘2012’ and the 2004 Asian tsunami, Chinese furniture maker Liu Qiyuan has constructed spherical emergency shelters in a village in Langfang, Hebei. Liu believes his structures could save his family from big floods, earthquakes or solar storms. Photo: AFP
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