BEIJING: The legacy of Chairman Mao Zedong continues to inspire his supporters four decades after his death, with a giant gold-painted statue of China's Communist Party founder at the cost of a whopping $460,000.
The 36 metre-high statute made up of concrete and steel has been installed in an open countryside in Tongxu county near Kaifeng in the central Henan province by farmers and local entrepreneurs who funded its construction.
Villagers said many tourists had come to have their photographs taken with the landmark, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today.
The Post also carried an image of the gold-painted statue that has the man who ruled China with an iron grip for nearly three decades seated with his hands crossed.
The statue was erected even though China moved away from his hardline Marxist ideology opting for market reforms.
