Author: ABR Team

The palace of the Manchu emperors in Beijing, China set a record for being the largest palace of the world. It has 980 buildings and 8,886 rooms, covers 72 hectares (equivalent to 134 football pitches), and hosted 24 rulers, up to and including the Last Emperor, Puyi, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Line 3 of the Chongqing Rail Transit system of China, set a record for being the longest monorail. It has been extended to 67.09 km, running past the airport in the north, through the city centre to the southern suburbs in China. In order to deal with the limited space and up to 100 m variation in the hilly terrain, it uses a “straddle-type” monorail system and carries a million passengers a day, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Gaoligong Tea Company of Tengchong, China, set a record of pressing the world’s largest block of compressed tea. This block of pu’er tea measuring 6.04 m high, 10.6 m round and weighing 42.6 tonnes was compressed in 37 days, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

The grave of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang of China, set a record of having the largest group of life-sized statues.The Terracotta Army near the grave site has 6,000 warriors standing with officers and horses, covering an area of 56 sq km with thousands of other treasures, including dancers, wrestlers and an animal menagerie. Burned and looted in the unrest that toppled Qin Shihuang’s heir in 206 BC, the warriors were not discovered until 1974, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Japan has set the record for having the maximum vending machines per capita in the world. There are currently around four million units in Japan, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Bandai of Yokohama, Japan, set a record by making the biggest mobile humanoid robot in the world. They unveiled their new shiny moving 18-meter tall 25-ton heavy humanoid robot – Gundam. It is based on the RX-78-2 Gundam design and was created in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the anime series, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo, Japan set a record of being the tallest tower in the world. At 634 meters, it is also the second-tallest structure of the world after Burj Khalifa in Dubai which is 829.8 meters high, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Tokyo in Japan set a record for having the maximum Michelin-starred restaurants in a city. It has as many as 432 restaurants. Of those, 203 have received stars, while the other 229 were part of the Bib Gourmand selection. In both cases, Tokyo is number one in the world. The city numbers more Michelin restaurants than some of the top 10 countries on the Michelin list, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, set a record by installing the shortest escalator. The escalator is at More’s Department Store in Kawasaki, Japan which is only 83.4 cm in height and has five steps in total, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.

Guangdong Science Centre of Lingnan, China, set a record for being the largest science museum ever built. The venue covers a floor area of 126,513.58 sq m and a total area of 450,000 sq m, and is set in a botanical garden, as confirmed on May 18, 2023.