A unique cultural park made entirely out of clay has recently been open to the public, in Tangshan City, China.
Featuring
rows of houses, busy streets filled with vendors and their carts, high
ranking officials and horse-pulled carriages, the park is a reproduction
of Zhang Zerui famous scroll painting Riverside Scene during the Qingming Festival.
The man behind this unique project is a local from the city’s Fengrun
District, named Qin Shiping. Tangshan has along standing tradition in
ceramics, and Qin worked as a sculptor and painter ever since he was a
young boy. In 2005, he got the idea to offer a unique view on China, and
since he had always been a fan of Zhang Zherui’s painting, he decided
to recreate the images depicted in the artwork with clay sculptures.
Qin
Shiping put his idea into practice in 2008. He hired two clay sculpture
experts with plenty of experience behind them, and 100 more regular
clay workers who got started on the project. Three years later, the Tangshan clay sculpture park has
finally been completed and opened to the general public. It’s 300
meters long and 60 meters wide and has been built at 2/3 life-size
scale. The exact cost of the park hasn’t yet made public, but back in
2009, Qin Shiping stated he had already invested over 10 million yuan
($1,545,000).
