China single-handedly made 2016 a record-breaking year for skyscrapers — more than 80 cloud-piercing buildings, all of them over 650 feet tall, went up in the country.
But perhaps even more impressive, at least from a design perspective, have been the mega-statues erected around the Chinese landscape — many over the last decade.
Colossal replicas of ancient religious figures and recent political leaders, such as Chairman Mao and the Buddha, reinforce the values China has kept for thousands of years.
Here are some of the most imposing.
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The most recent statue is of a legendary Miao goddess of beauty, Yang'asha, whose final height will measure 288 feet when completed. The statue is meant to draw tourists to the Guizhou province.
Source: The Shanghaiist
On the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, demonstrators assembled near a granite statue of a young Chairman Mao Zedong in the city of Changsha, in Hunan province. It was built in 2009.
About 500 miles north, in Henan province, a 120-foot-tall golden statue depicting Mao in his later years was ready to be unveiled last September when local critics demanded its demolition, claiming Mao's policies hurt the region during his Great Leap Forward.
Source:The New York Times
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