The sculpture of Emperors Yan and Huang is a monument in China that was carved from a mountain on the
Yellow River
The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...
. The overall monument height is ; a 55-meter base platform with 51-meter busts on top. They depict the two mythical emperors known as
Yan Emperor (Yandi) and
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...
(Huangdi). The construction lasted 20 years and was completed in 2007, at a cost of US$22.5 million. They are located in
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan, China. Located in northern Henan, it is one of the nine National central city, national central cities in China, and serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational center of the province. Th ...
, the capital of
Henan
Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
, People's Republic of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. The statues commemorate politics and the economy.
[http://english.sina.com/life/p/1/2006/1013/91715.html 106-Meter High Statue of Emperors Yan and Huang Built]
History
In 1987, Wang Renmin, a key figure at a Zhengzhou City tourist attraction, was inspired during visits to Singapore and the United States, where he encountered strong support for the concept of Yan and Huang Emperors' descendants. This inspired him to propose building a sculpture of the emperors by the Yellow River. On October 15, 1987, Wang Renmin announced plans for the sculpture and initiated a global donation campaign. Over the next five years, he lobbied extensively. In 1988, the Yanhuang Emperor Giant Sculpture Preparatory Committee was formed in Beijing, followed by the establishment of the national Chinese Yanhuang Culture Research Association on May 10, 1991. The foundation for the sculpture was laid on September 12, 1991, and construction began in September 1994 but faced funding issues. In 2004, the project was handed over to the Zhengzhou Municipal Government and became a key city project. With government and investment support, construction progressed smoothly, culminating in the statue's inauguration on April 18, 2007.
Construction
The giant sculpture, standing 106 meters tall, combines a mountain and human figures, symbolizing unity. It surpasses the
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...
in height by 8 meters and
the Motherland Calls
''The Motherland Calls'' () is a colossal neoclassicism, neoclassicist and socialist realism, socialist realist war memorial sculpture on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia. Designed primarily by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich with assistance fro ...
in Russia by 2 meters. The sculpture features
Emperor Yan and
Emperor Huang, with identical facial features. Their eyes are 3 meters long, and their noses are 8 meters long. The faces together cover over 1,000 square meters.
The sculpture is made from over 7,000 cubic meters of concrete, 1,500 tons of steel, and 6,000 cubic meters of granite, all sourced from Taihang Mountain. The project cost approximately 180 million yuan.
See also
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List of tallest statues
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Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
According to Chinese mythology and traditional Chinese historiography, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors () were a series of sage Chinese emperors, and the first Emperors of China. Today, they are considered culture heroes, but they wer ...
*
Yan Huang Zisun
Yan Huang Zisun (), or descendants of Yan and Yellow Emperors, is a term that represents the Chinese people and refers to an ethnocultural identity based on a common ancestry associated with a mythological origin.
This term is connected to Yan ...
References
External links
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Colossal statues in China
Stone sculptures in China
Outdoor sculptures in China
2007 sculptures
Tourist attractions in Zhengzhou
Buildings and structures completed in 2007
2007 establishments in China
Buildings and structures in Zhengzhou
Yan Emperor
2007 in Zhengzhou