At the request of workers: in China, they will spend a huge amount on dismantling the statue, which the residents did not like
The authorities of the Chinese city of Jingzhou will allocate $ 23.9 million to move a 58-meter bronze statue of the military commander Guan Yu from the center to a less popular and visited by tourists area. And everything would be fine, but only earlier they had already spent $ 26 million on it.
In 2016, this giant sculpture was erected on the roof of the museum, with an area of 8 thousand square meters. The creators of the new attraction wanted to attract tourists and get into the Guinness Book of Records.
The statue of the warlord of the Shu kingdom of the Three Kingdoms era, Guan Yu, revered in China as the "god of war", weighs 1.3 thousand tons. Its height reaches 58 meters. The dimensions of the complex with a pedestal are comparable to a 20-storey building. The entire sculpture is made of bronze.
Guan Yu is a legendary Chinese military commander who lived at the end of the Han era (III century). The prototype of the hero of one of the four Chinese classic novels "The Three Kingdoms", he was deified in 1594.
But the appearance of a huge statue did not cause the delight of either local residents or the central government. Outraged residents believe that Guan Yu, although covered with gilding, spoils the entire appearance of the city, just an "eyesore", and the Beijing government has completely criticized the project:
In the Jingzhou district, where the statue was placed, it is forbidden to erect structures higher than 78 feet (about 24 meters). However, the developers found a loophole in the law — they received a permit for the construction of a pedestal, and the statue was positioned as a work of art, the installation of which does not need to be approved.
Now the state group responsible for investment and tourism development of Jingzhou, which is the owner of this "work of art", will spend a staggering $ 24 million to move the monument. There are plans to move the giant statue to Dianjiantai-this is 8 kilometers further from the previous place.
The dismantling of the monument has already begun. But in society, this news again caused indignation due to the fact that the construction of the monument a few years ago also cost the local budget tens of millions of dollars.
Keywords: China | Asia | Statue | World | Design and architecture | Demolition | Monument