The biggest Guan Gong statue in the world

Recently, the Shanxi provincial government in China has completed a project to build the biggest Guan Gong statue in the world at the birthplace of General Guan - Chang Ping village near Yuncheng city. This is to commemorate the deity and also to promote tourism. The bronze statue is 61m tall, symbolizing the age when Guan Gong passed away and the platform is 19m tall, symbolizing the age when he left his home town. Over 500 tons of copper, 2,000 tons of steel and 18,000 tons of earth were used to build this statue.

Indeed, of all the guardian deities in Buddhism, only Guan Gong enjoys such high respect and has such a giant statue built in his honor. Again, this is an eternal testament to the traditional values of loyalty, courage, humanity and righteousness, represented by Guan Gong. Even though the Chinese government build large monuments like these to attract the tourist dollar rather than promoting traditional values, they still serve to inspire all people who look upon them in one way or another. The Guan Gong monument park will be officially opened on Sep 13th 2010.