Media have blasted an attempt by a Chinese city in Hunan province to set a world record for the longest string of firecrackers, labeling it "ridiculous" and a waste of money.

A 20-km string of firecrackers, stretching from Dayao Town to the downtown area of Liuyang City, home to China's largest firecracker production base, went up in smoke on Friday afternoon, exploding for 68 minutes and littering the ground with red debris, as organizers sought to gain publicity for the city and its local fireworks industry.

The event, organized by several firecracker plants and partly sponsored by the local government, cost more than 800,000 yuan (about US$107,000), including 580,000 yuan for the firecrackers themselves and the remainder to stage the event and ensure the fire service was on standby.

"The production of firecrackers is one of the city's main industries. We hope the success of making the longest firecracker will increase the confidence of the producers and make our city well-known across the country," said Xu Qiangguo, head of the Liuyang Firecrackers Bureau.

But the event, billed by local media as a Guinness World Record attempt, was not attended by an official Guinness World Records representative after it ignored a request from the organizers to attend.

Instead, a representative from the unofficial Shanghai Great World Guinness Book of Records turned up to present them with a certificate bestowing upon the city the honour of having only "the country's longest string of firecrackers".

"I can only ensure you that it's the longest firecracker in China and I dare not say it's the world's longest," said the Shanghai office's representative Wang Yizhuo.

"Firecrackers were traditionally used to ward off evils but burning crackers is more of a token of celebrations and festivals nowadays. I think this longest string of crackers reflect the happy and peaceful life of the people," he said.

A flood of opinion pieces from newspapers around the country waded in with their assessments.

"Such a record is ridiculous, just like to sharpen the two ends of a tree and apply for the record of the longest toothpick," a journalist with the Jinan Times said.

The Beijing Times said, "Unless the firecrackers are supposed to be part of a cinematic scene of raging war, what benefits would accrue from setting off 20 kilometers of fireworks?"

The newspaper went on to bemoan the country's lack of creativity. "We are no less than a manufacturing base for the world. We may continue to set records in a similar manner, but that will not add a jot to our overall competitiveness," the article said.

The Liuyang authorities also came under fire from a writer from the Guangzhou Daily, who called the event a "real burden for the local economy".

"It's high time to call off applications for the professed 'longest' or 'most' records, such as 10,000 people eating hotpot and 10,000 people washing their feet together. They lack social significance as well as scientific and technical skills," he wrote.

"Some local governments like to spend a fortune creating a record in order to attract attention. But after the sensation only some meaningless numbers are left."

But the man behind the spectacle Xu Qiangguo remained defiant and said he was considering applying for the official world record next year.

"I don't think it's a waste of money because we have got what we wanted: extensive media coverage and more orders," he said. "If you call that too luxurious, how about the existence of so many five-star hotels? They are even more luxurious."

Several onlookers in Liuyang agreed. "The firecracker industry is the pillar industry of the city and making such a long one will promote our firecrackers' fame and maybe even make them world renowned," one said.

Meanwhile the controversy surrounding the legitimacy of the Shanghai Great World Guinness Book of Records, which was established in 1992 and comes under the authority of the Shanghai branch of the Communist Party Youth League, continues.

Guinness' official branch in China is Liaoning Education Press, based in the northeastern province of the same name.

According to an article on the website of Liaoning Education Press, it has been the real Guinness Book of Records representative in China since Shanghai Great World Guinness and the Guinness Book of Records split in 1996.

In 2003, a Hebei businessman from Beijing sued the Shanghai office after paying them a 1,800-yuan registration fee so he could set a world record for the first bungee jump from a moving aircraft, believing the organization to be affiliated to the Guinness publishers.

After completing the jump from a helicopter 80 meters above ground, He later read in a Beijing newspaper that the Shanghai Guinness office was not an authorized agent of the Guinness Book of World Records and had been misleading the public. He also discovered that a German man had jumped 1,100 meters from a helicopter in 1997.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2007)