A youthful Mao Zedong will tower over the Hunan capital Changsha if a local leader's plan to build the world's tallest statue is realised.
The proposal to build a 183-metre likeness of the late Communist Party chairman is one of several ideas to rejuvenate local tourism put forward by Chen Lushe, the deputy secretary-general of the Communist Party's Changsha committee, the Changsha Evening News reported.
Mr Chen suggested the statue be erected on Juzizhou, an island in the Xiang River which passes through Changsha. He says its height will be 100 times Mao's 1.83 metres.
'There are no successful gigantic statues of great men in the world,' he said. 'We can be the first in history, and set up the tallest one at Juzizhou of the young Mao Zedong, taller than New York's [46.5 metre] Statue of Liberty and the [88 metre] Lingshan Buddha in Wuxi , Jiangsu .
'This future statue will be the symbol of our nation and an icon for all Chinese people.'
Mr Chen said Juzizhou was an appropriate site for the statue because it was on the 980-hectare island that Mao became involved in the communist movement.