Celebration for the success of a major City Museum move, in Datong, on Dec 9, [Photo by Chen Xudong/dtnews.cn]

When the city of Datong, Shanxi province, finally got its City Museum completely relocated, on Dec 9, it had crowds of people on hand the celebrate the perfect fit in the new location, even though it's only 1400 meters to the east of the old site.

But the real celebration was the world record it got for moving a building, both in size and in distance covered, so the company that handled the project, the Shanghai Xianwei Corp, has filed an application with the Guinness Book of World Records.

The museum bears a resemblance to Beijing's Great Hall of the People, and has been a landmark for many years. Unfortunately, it was in the way of a major city-relic preservation project involving the old city walls, in 2009. After its people were polled and scholars and engineers consulted, the city government decided not to tear the museum down, but move the entire structure to a new site. The museum now coexists with a number of relics in the same area.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw

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