China restores 800-year-old Buddhist statue

Photo taken on June 13, 2015 shows the restored statue of "Qianshou Guanyin" in Dazu County, Southwestern Chongqing Municipality. Chinese experts have completed restoration of a famous 800-year-old Buddha statue after seven years of work. Visitors now could see a new appearance of the "Qianshou Guanyin", a statue with 1,000 hands, in Dazu County. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese experts have completed restoration of a famous 800-year-old Buddha statue after seven years of work. Visitors now could see a new appearance of the "Qianshou Guanyin", a statue with 1,000 hands, in Dazu county, Southwestern Chongqing Municipality.

The restoration program began in 2008 and cost about 60 million yuan (9.8 million U.S. dollars).Workers restored 830 hands and 227 instruments, using one million gold foils, consolidating the dated pieces of the statue and thoroughly cleaning it. It is the largest restoration project on the statue,which underwent repairs at least four times in history.