On September 26, at Zhaotong stadium, when Wang Jiugang, the examiner of Guinness World Record, announced that the portrait made of apples by people of Zhaoyang District of Zhaotong City, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, to welcome the 2008 Olympic Games had broken the Guinness Record and the crowd roared with excitement. 

This portrait expressed the blessings of 5.3 million Zhaotong people for the 29th Beijing Olympic Games, "2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Zhaotong welcomes you!"

Starting from 9 AM., 730 young volunteers of Zhaoyang District patched up the portrait "Chinese Seal for the Olympic Games" together with 7 huge Chinese characters "Zhaoyang apples welcome the Olympic Games" with 341,969 apples. It took them two and a half hours to complete the 70-ton spectacular portrait. The portrait is 50 meters long, 30 meters wide and has an area of 1,500 square meters. It broke the Guinness World Record of previous fruit portraits.

Seeing from above, the portrait looks like a giant piece of embroidery spread on the grass. The portrait uses green apples as the background and red apples to compose the massive picture of the "Chinese seal" and the 7 huge Chinese characters.

This apple portrait broke 7 world records: it is for the first time that a country has made an apple portrait just before it hosts the Olympic Games; it is the world's largest portrait pieced together by apples; it is a portrait made of the most apples in the world; it is the first apple portrait relating to the Olympic spirit; it is the first time that fruit farmers have expressed their support of the Olympic Games via an apple portrait; finally, as a portrait consisting of organic matter this tribute can be viewed as an environmentally friendly work of art.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, September 28, 2007)