The statue of Guan Yu, a Chinese warrior god, is situated in Jingzhou. It stands at 180 feet tall. The government is currently moving the statue piece-by-piece to an eight-kilometer location. However, the cost of moving it will be a staggering $20 million. Weibo
Chinese officials are irritated at the $20 million price tag for moving a bronze statue measuring 190 feet in height.
In December 2020, a decree was issued to move the monumental monument of Chinese warrior-god Guan Yu.
The construction cost nearly $26 million, but the Chinese government later claimed that it had ruined the landscape.
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Relocating the 190-foot tall statue of Guan Yu, a Chinese warrior-god, will cost Jingzhou $20 million.
Local anti-graft officials were furious at the eye-watering amount and issued a blunt statement on September 7, urging more oversight in the approval of "large projects", such as the construction of this massive bronze statue back 2016.
Guan Yu, a famous warrior of the Three Kingdoms-era, is venerated as a god and worshipped in China.
It's a waste more than 300 million Yuan (or $44.6 million). It was first illegally constructed, then it was removed," officials from Hubei, a central Chinese province, said.
The Chinese giant statue cost $26 million to construct in 2016. It is also located in an area that city regulations prohibit buildings higher than 78 feet. However, the statue's supporters managed to find a regulatory loophole and get it approved for construction.
According to the South China Morning Post, the statue was hailed as the largest bronze statue of the general at its unveiling.
Not everyone loved the statue. According to the Chinese central government, the statue had "ruined Jingzhou’s history and culture." The Jingzhou Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development decided to move it from Guan Gong Park in December. Sina News reported that some residents complained that the attraction was an eyesore.
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Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform was abuzz with images of the war god "decapitated", while workers worked to remove each piece. The massive statue will be moved to Dianjiangtai (a tourist precinct less visible than its current location), which is approximately five miles away.
Weibo images showed the statue being "decapitated", with workers working to move it piece by piece. Weibo
It was one of many mega-statues that were constructed in China at the time the Guan Yu statue was built. These include giant Buddhas and gargantuan deities, but there are also more bizarre statements like a huge Chairman Mao, an exact replica of Egypt's Sphinxes, or a mammoth Marilyn Monroe.
Some Chinese cities aren't slowing down with the big-statue boom. Ulanqab in China, China's "potato capital," proposed last September a statue of a potato-sized potato to commemorate its heritage.
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