Sanya, a tropical city in China's southernmost Hainan Province, is building the world's largest temple for Bodhisattva, one of the best-known Buddhist gods, to boost its local tourism.
The project includes a temple called the "Nirvana Hall of the Nanshan Offshore Bodhisattva" and a 108 meter-tall statue of Bodhisattva.
The hall will cover an area of 13,000 square meters and will be 22 meters high.
Eight steel pillars, with a diameter of 1.1 meters, will be used to support the weighty Buddhist statue.
The Bodhisattva statue will be a landmark in the Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, a famously colorful region which features Buddhist culture and natural landscapes.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2002)
