Largest Matouqin ensemble
On 15 July 2008, a new Guinness World Record was set in Qianguoerluosi Mongolian Autonomous County, Songyuan City, China. The record was for the largest Matouqin ensemble, with 2,008 musicians playing Matouqin simultaneously and beautifully.
15 July 2008 is a very special day for people there, as the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch relay was carried through Songyuan city. 2,008 musicians gathered at the Olympic Square, where the opening ceremony for the torch relay was held. They cheered on the torch relay together with many people from the city. After the torch left the square to pass through the city, the record attempt began. The musicians played two songs with the title of I love you, Qianguoerluosi and The Eternal Holy Fire, which lasted over seven minutes. All the participants were musicians who were highly skilled at playing Matouqin, with the oldest player 59 years old and the youngest player just 8 years old.
They had been training for this occasion for more than one year. The organizers wanted to welcome the Beijing 2008 Olympics, which is why they set the record-breaking number at 2,008 musicians to break their previous record of 1,199 set in 2006.Guinness World Records adjudicator Angela Wu attended the event, who counted the number of the participants and witnessed all the playing. When she announced a new record, the people present cheered loudly. The participants were very happy to have taken part in such a wonderful event and they all hope for a very successful Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
17 July 2008