The world's largest jade statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy in Buddhist legend, will be erected in the city of Zhangzhou, east China's Fujian Province.

With a height of 12 meters and weight of 219 tons, the statue was carved out of a 399-ton natural jade bought from Myanmar by overseas Chinese businessmen.

Lin Canghui, general designer of Tiancheng Touring Development Co. Ltd., which is responsible for making the statue, said the jade Guanyin statue, worth at least one billion yuan (about US$120 million), will be erected at the city's scenic spot of Tianchengshan in October.

Lin said skillful craftsmen spent one and half year to design, carve and polish this world's largest jade statue of Guanyin, the most familiar goddess to the Chinese people.

Currently, the statue has already been preserved in the city but its lotus pedestal, also made of jade and weighs more than 100 tons, are still in Myanmar.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006)