Zhanjiang city has erected a giant puffer fish sculpture by a lake, which may soon enter the Guiness Book of World Records.
Something fishy about this? Image: People's Daily |
"The best part is clearly the design", said Lu Jianxin, project manager of the Bronze Fugu fish at Zhangjiang Garden Expo Xisha Islands, who believes every penny of the 70m yuan ($11.5m) invested in the giant sculpture was money well spent.
The fish is 62 metres high, 70 metres long, 44 metres wide and weighs in at a little more than 2,100 tons.
The fish is build from over 8,000 sheets of copper, which make it dazzling during the day, but is also studded with LED lights that create an impressive visual show after the sun goes down.
Creating such a technical project required a team of experts from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University, who faced a number of challenges designing the puffer, most significantly creating a strong enough foundation near the water that would not subside.
In a time of government austerity, some question the shrewdness of investing 70m yuan into cultural projects as the project drew attention from national media. However, Lu assured press at the opening that the project had actually come in 10m yuan under budget.