A total of 2,285 people in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, set a new Guinness World Record Friday afternoon by singing one after another for 118 straight hours.

Participants gathered in a shopping mall celebrated their breaking of the previous 100-hour record after the last singer finished at 6:00 PM Friday.

However, the Economic Broadcast television channel, which organized the singing marathon, said the result needed confirmation from the UK-based Guinness headquarters and it would send a video of the whole event to the Guinness China agency.

Guinness has strict rules for the activity, saying every participant should sing a complete song, and no song should be repeated within two hours.

It also stipulates that the interval between the songs should not exceed 30 seconds and that the whole activity be supervised by professionals and notaries.

The activity, which began on Sunday, was scheduled to last for 116 hours, but the organizer had to prolong the time because of an unexpectedly warm response from local people.

Crowds rushed to the outdoor stage as well as a transparent glass singing house to ask to take part.

The Economic Broadcast channel had also provided advanced electronic equipment for the singers and made two recordings of every song.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)