The system will not only prevent disastrous fires and floods, but also help keep visitors in order and stop damage to the 1, 281-year-old statue from outside forces.

The system, due to be completed within two years, will cost some 4 million yuan (US$480,000), sources say.

Lu Lin, director of the Leshan Buddha Management Committee, said the system includes sensitive warning equipment that can keep watch around the clock.

Last year, Leshan invested a total of 6 million yuan (US$720,000) to build more facilities to improve security for the statue.

A pipeline network was developed to send river water to the mountain, which not only provides water for trees around the statue, but is also used for fire fighting

The statue, which sits on a cliff, measures 71 meters from top to bottom and 28 meters wide -- 18 meters taller than the standing Buddha statue at Bamian Valley in Afghanistan.

More than 2 million visitors come to see the Leshan Buddha each year, which adds about 700 million yuan (US$84 million) to local tourism earnings.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2002)