Henan Province has its own version of Mount Rushmore, a pair of 59-foot-tall head carvings of two legendary Chinese figures at the Yellow River Scenic Area about 20 miles northwest of Zhengzhou.
I saw them over the weekend during a group outing with five of my teaching colleagues and five students from Henan University of Technology. It took 20 years to complete the carvings of Yandi and Huangdi, ancient (and probably mythical) rulers who are considered the progenitors of Chinese civilization. Both men have fearsome expressions that would make you think twice about crossing them.
The plaza at the base of the statues, which were finished in 2007, features nine bronze dings (ancient cauldrons) and stone plaques representing China’s 56 recognized ethnic groups.
Visitors can climb up to a platform just below the carved heads, which are actually 328-feet high when you include the stone base of the monument. It’s a hairy ascent with no guardrails and rudimentary steps that often require a small jump.
China is obsessed with giant statues. According to China Daily, the country’s largest English-language newspaper, 10 of the world’s 43 tallest statues are in the Middle Kingdom – and nine of them have been built in the past 20 years. The only ancient one is the Leshan Grand Buddha, a 233-foot-tall cliff carving completed in 803 AD.
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The world’s tallest statue is the Spring Temple Buddha in Lushan County, about 90 miles from Zhengzhou. The golden figure, completed in 2008, is 502-feet tall if you include its 66-foot lotus-shaped pedestal and the 82-foot building that it sits atop. If the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota is ever finished, the sculpture of the Indian chief on his horse would surpass the Spring Temple Buddha as the tallest statue at 563 feet.
Another notable statute at the Yellow River Scenic Area is a supersized bronze sculpture of a seated Chairman Mao, who visited the park in 1952. Visitors like to climb on his lap and have their pictures taken with the iconic revolutionary leader, who is still venerated in China even though his hard-core brand of communism has all but vanished during the country’s economic boom.
One of the park’s best-known sculptures – a mother cradling a baby in her arms – has deteriorated so much that they’re making a new version. We watched a workman use an electric sander to smooth the mother’s face on the updated model. He didn’t have to look far for his inspiration because the old statue stood just a few yards away, in front of a still-under-construction ticket office.
The funniest sculpture at the park shows a naked man sitting at a computer. It’s part of a display of statutes charting evolution from prehistoric to modern times. My colleague Darren posed like an ape between two of the sculptures, adding a mysterious new link in the evolutionary chain.
