Statue's sudden arrival, departure create controversy

A new statue in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was demolished only 11 days after it was put in place, but controversy about its creation and demise still rages.

The 18-meter-high, 40-plus-ton statue at the intersection of Santunbei and Bahar roads in Urumqi, capital of the autonomous region, on Aug 6 was an image of the goddess Apsara in flight, wearing heavy makeup and a long skirt covered with colorful flowers.

The continuing positive comments on the Internet is a sign that it is missed.

Early Friday morning, it was dismantled by more than 20 workers and loaded by crane onto four flatcars, according to a report on iyaxin.com, a news portal in the autonomous region.

A micro blog about its being erected has been forwarded about 5,000 times on Sina Weibo, China's largest Twitter-like service, and the news of its dismantling has been forwarded more than 3,000 times since it was reported on Saturday.

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