25 Chinese Records in the Guinness Book in 2005

Twenty-five Chinese records went into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2005, sources with China's submitting office said on January 16.

"These new entries reflect China's long history, modern achievements in science and technology, as well as the lives of ordinary Chinese," said Wu Xiaohong, a staff member with the Guinness submitting office of Liaoning Publishing Group, which is the only Guinness-authorized agency in China.

The Confucius family genealogy, one of the 25 records, is considered the longest of its kind in world records. Dating back 2,800 years, it clearly records the 86 generations of the Confucius family tree.

In addition, the records of unique feminine writing symbols discovered in Hunan Province and the oldest angiosperm fossils unearthed in Northeast China are both a mirror of China's long civilization, said Wu.

Some modern wonders, including the "highest" railway, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway on the "roof of the world," the longest rubber dam in East China which extends 1,135 metres, all rated entries in the Guinness Book.

Hong Kong's 105-metre-high, 860,000-square-metre Kwai Chung container wharf is considered the largest world industrial construction.

Some group events were also recorded by Guinness, such as a flute performance attended by 5,600 Hong Kong children and a horse race in Inner Mongolia that involved 200 horses.

Individual Chinese also contributed to the Guinness Book. A Beijing resident, named Wang Jun, made a two-stringed traditional Chinese instrument, an erhu, which measures only 4.7 centimetres in length.

The Guinness Book of World Records registers more than 50,000 records of various kinds in the world. Last year, China submitted 500 entries and 5 percent of them made the records.