More than 2,000 people in central China's city of Changsha, Hunan Province are taking part in a singing marathon from Sunday to Friday to set a new Guinness Record.

The participants will continuously sing for 116 hours to smash the current 100-hour record.

The organizer of the activity, the Economic Broadcast of Hunan Province, has built an outdoor stage as well as a transparent glass singing house for the round-the-clock singing. It has also provided advanced electronic equipment to the singers and made two copies for every song.

An alternative electricity supply system is also in place in case of emergency.

The UK-based Guinness headquarters have set strict rules for this activity, saying that every participant should sing a complete song, and the same song should not be repeated within two hours.

The headquarters also demanded that the interval between the songs should not exceed 30 seconds and that the whole process of the activity should be supervised by professionals and notaries.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2006)