A ceremony was held yesterday to celebrate the completion of a scenic boulevard filled with man-made dinosaurs in Erenhot, Inner Mongolia.
Walking on the boulevard, people may behold two steel dinosaurs kissing each other. They are believed to be the biggest dinosaur statues, worldwide.
The statues are actually twin replicas of a Brachiosaurus. Each individual dinosaur statue is 34 meters wide and 19 meters high. The span of the two together reaches 80 meters. Their total volume is 4,080 cubic meters. The statues consist of 60 tons of steel, a total of 1,000 cubic meters of stone, and 360 cubic meters of concrete.
Erenhot is a city located in the Gobi Desert, in the Xilin Gol league of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Called the "Dinosaur City" many fossils have been discovered in the area, including the biggest and best-preserved dinosaur fossil in Asia. Besides the scenic boulevard, the city is also planning to renovate their dinosaur museum in order to attract more tourists to the region.
From the southern dinosaur-kissing city gate to northern region of Erenhot, a total of 48 dinosaur statues have been installed parallel to the main boulevard. According to the China News Service, the city is applying for entry into the Guinness World Records regarding its dinosaur statues and scenic boulevard.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui August 7, 2007)