Chinese craftsmen make 2.36-meter high hot pot

A Chinese artist has made a 2.36-meter high copper hot pot, large enough for hundreds of people to dine together at the same time.

With a perimeter of 3.69 meters, the pot is made from more than 200 kilograms of copper and it took eight months to build, said designer Wang Youwen, an metal-work artist from Datong City in north China's Shanxi Province.

"It can probably hold 260 kilograms of water and can serve 300 people at the same time," he said.

Wang told Xinhua that the pot was a superb piece of craftsmanship and that exquisite engravings of dragons and phoenixes adorned the body.

The large hot pot is now in the collection of a coal museum in Datong.

It has been identified as the largest hand-made copper hot pot by the Shanghai-based China Records Headquarters.

According to Wang, Datong copperware has a history spanning from the East Zhou Dynasty (770 BC-221 BC). Former French president Pompidou received a piece of Datong copperware as a national gift in 1973.