There’s nothing the Vietnamese can’t do, especially when it’s about putting the beloved nation on the global map — or literally creating a map that breaks world records.
Over the weekend, a car mosaic of a giant Vietnamese map in Hai Phong drew everyone’s attention. The map was made of about 1,700 cars parked at the Do Son International Tourist Area.
Organized by Vietnamese automaker VinFast and OTV Media and prepared by auto community Otofun, the 16-hectare car mosaic set a new world record for the largest car arrangement, as confirmed by the Guinness World Records. The record was previously held by China with 750 cars forming a buffalo head to celebrate the Year of the Ox last year.
OTV Media said on Saturday that the project took about two years to finalize. It was initially scheduled for early 2021 but was postponed due to rising cases and strict lockdown restrictions. Finding the ideal location to accommodate 1,680 vehicles that would make the S-shaped map. More than 700,000 sand blocks were pumped within a month to fill the 3.5m deep lake in Do Son, creating a flat and spacious ground.
“This is not only a record of car placement but also a record of the determination of thousands of people present at the event,” said Nguyen Dai Hoang, general director of OTV Media.
The heavy downpour on the morning of Saturday made the puzzle process more difficult for the organizers and volunteers. Amidst the mud and rain, everyone was all pumped to finish the project and bring Vietnam another world recognition.
The car mosaic, which perfectly resembled the Vietnamese map, was complete with all the archipelagos, “connecting all Vietnamese people wherever they are.”
According to the record’s guidelines, the mosaic had to be entirely made up of cars with a recognizable pattern. The distance between that cars could not exceed 20 centimeters, and the mosaic needed to cover a minimum area of 3,000 square meters.
On the sidelines, VinFast held a quality test of an amphibious electric vehicle with a depth of 50cm. It also organized its first electric car race in Vietnam on Sunday.
The event was intended to contribute to Do Son's tourism industry. OTV Media said they want to promote the coastal city as a safe, attractive, and ideal destination for caravans traveling by car.
Vietnam has recently been setting one world record after another. On June 28, Ben Tre, the country’s ‘coconut capital’, also set a world record for the largest event for the processing and presentation of coconut-based dishes. Earlier this month, two Vietnamese ceramic works were also recognized by Guinness as the largest ceramic sculpture of a mythical creature and the largest carved ceramic plate. The ceramic masterpieces were made by Nguyen Van Hung, who’s been practicing and promoting the traditional craft for more than 40 years now.