United Nations Photo

A gift of the People's Republic of China. The Ivory Carving of the "Chengtu-Kunming Railway" was carved on eight ivory tusks, which together weigh more than 300 kilogrammes. The finished piece is 150cm in length and 110cm in height and weighs more than 150 kilogrammes. The Chengtu-Kunming Railway was opened to traffic on 1 July 1970. It runs from Chengtu, Szechuan Province, in the north, to Kunming in the south and covers a distance of 1,085 kilometres. With the iron chained suspension bridge on the Tatu River, over which the Chinese Red Army made a force crossing during the Long March, as the background, this ivory carving show cases in the centre the Tatu River steel bridge, which is typical of the many bridges built along this line, and uses it as a link to make the composition an integral whole. The main portion of the piece consists of two huge peaks connected by the railway bridge and the myriad Mountains and rivers through which the railway passes.