Grad blows up school and gets paid

A former student in East China got to trigger an explosion that instantly demolished a 12-story building at his alma mater, which in turn triggered an outburst of jokes from netizens saying he was living their childhood fantasy of “blowing up the school.”

Hu Bin is a demolition expert who learned his trade as an explosives engineer at Anhui University of Science & Technology in Huainan, Anhui Province. His company won the bid to demolish an old teaching building where he used to attend classes.

The building collapsed in a second from a series of well-placed explosives and was recorded and posted on Beijing Time Video on Wednesday.

Netizens immediately recalled an old song from public school about a bird asking a student where he’s carrying with a bag of explosives. “I’m going to blow up the school,” the student replies. “Bang! The school blows up,” goes the refrain.

“I just wanted to do something for my alma mater,” said Hu, noting that he did not expect the video of the imploding school building would be a hit online.

The video made the rounds on Sina Weibo. “Hahaha how many students have dreamt of blowing up their school? I didn’t think it could actually happen,” wrote an excited netizen. “And you get paid for blowing up a school. Bravo!” commented another.