Character: Gaint Gulliver
Features: certified by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest inflatable sculpture
Time: available until Oct 24
Venues: Chaoyang Park, Beijing
Admission fee: 90 yuan per person.
Gulliver has traveled to Beijing. No kidding. Jonathan Swift's famous fictional character is now in town, and you will definitely get a shock when you see him, he's so big.
As the protagonist in Swift's four-part novel, Gulliver is a giant to the people of Lilliput who are one-twelfth his size. In his Beijing incarnation, lying on his back in the grass of Chaoyang Park, he is a giant to us, as his plastic body is 70 meters long and as tall as a 20-story building if he were standing.
Certified by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest inflatable sculpture, it was created by the Paperwindmill Cultural and Education Foundation from Taiwan.
But the amazing part is not just its size, inside the giant body is a traveling museum revealing the workings of the human body.
Visitors entering through a hole in one of its feet can walk through the large intestine, which is laid out like a maze, see the heart pumping and the lungs working.
"Everyone has dreams about adventures in their childhood, like traveling around the world. Gulliver represents that dream in some way. And we not only replicated him, we tried to replicate our dream," said Jen Chien-cheng, a representative for the Taiwan organization.
Although it was the first time many of them had heard the name Gulliver, they instantly found a fictional figure in Chinese fairytales to relate to.
Men Chaoyue, a Grade 6 primary school student, said going inside "is just like in Journey to the West, when the Monkey King jumps into the stomach of Princess Iron Fan".
The children said they were happy and excited that they got the chance to know themselves "inside out".
"Next time, when people ask me where my intestine is, for example, I will not hesitate to give them the right answer," said Sun Hao, one of the students.
