A massive petition signing has been staged this week to call for efforts to be made to protect the world's tallest Buddha statue in Leshan, a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Sources with the local cultural heritage department said over the past two days, about 4,000 tourists signed their names on a scroll of silk 71 meters long.

Officials with the Leshan giant Buddha cultural heritage management center said the drive aims to help more people in the world know about the statue and volunteer to protect it.

They said human activity and changes in the natural environment has caused serious damage to the 1,280 year-old Leshan Buddha statue, which is 71 meters tall and 28 meters wide.

With an investment of 250 million yuan (about US$ 30 million), China is carrying out comprehensive repair project on the statue, which is under first-class state protection of China and on the list of the World Cultural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

(Xinhua 04/17/2001)