Over 60 sculptors from home and abroad completed on Thursday a total of 100 sand sculptures within an area of 300,000 square meters in an ancient town of southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

The sand sculpture show, featuring the history and culture of Chongqing in the past century, has set world records both for the number of sand sculptures and the size of a single sculpture, according to Huang Peisheng, general advisor of the show.

Chongqing is the fourth and newest municipality of China, while it was also the cradle of Ba culture, which originated in the ancient Chongqing and has thousands of years of history.

Starting on Nov. 17, the 100 sand sculptures were created by sculptors from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions like the Republic of Korea and Switzerland, according to Liu Jinghuo, artistic supervisor of the show.

According to Liu, the largest sand sculpture is nine meters long, nine meters wide and seven meters tall, depicting groups of Diaojiaolou architecture, the typical ancient buildings of Chongqing. Liu said it set a record in the size of a single sand sculpture in the world and reflects a mixture of tradition and modernization.

During the show that runs from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, the organizing committee arranged a place for kids to make sand sculptures by themselves to learn the art and enjoy themselves.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2004)