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Feature: Chinese lions, dragons find a home in Argentina's capital

Xinhua, May 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iconic Chinese lions and dragons have found a home in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, where local officials on Wednesday unveiled four new statues.

Two Heavenly Dragons and two Imperial Guardian Lions, donated to the city by the Chinese side, were incorporated into the city's Chinatown, which was recently revamped to accommodate a growing number of visitors.

"These sculptures will help us strengthen Chinese culture. It's something nice the city does to maintain that cosmopolitan mixture that makes Buenos Aires so fantastic," Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta said during the unveiling ceremony.

Neighborhood residents gathered for the event, which was also attended by Chinese Ambassador to Argentina Yang Wanming, Deputy Mayor Diego Santilli, and the city's minister of Environment and Public Spaces Eduardo Macchiavelli.

Yang thanked the Buenos Aires government "for its support ... for the Chinese community, which today has made a new development."

Macchiavelli, meanwhile, said that "we are very proud to have these four sculptures (that are) characteristic of Chinese culture in this neighborhood, and to continue building a better and more integrated city with all the residents."

The sculptures "are beautiful," said Liliana Servende, who works in that area that is home to restaurants, fish markets and Asian supermarkets.

"I'm going to bring my family so we can take photos with them," she added.

The Heavenly Dragons and Guardian Lions are located along Chinatown's Arribenos Street. Each two-meter-tall lion was carved from a single block of white jade and weighs 3,500 kilos, its open mouth with a movable sphere. The dragons are as large and as heavy as the lions, but were made of pink marble.

The new statues were presented by the Chinese embassy as gifts from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. Remodeling in Chinatown from May to November last year gave the popular district a pedestrian-friendly makeover, leveling sidewalks with the streets to make them wider, blocking off traffic, installing new lamps and planting more trees.

Chinatown, as an important commercial and cultural center, merited a face lift, the city government said. Endi