Visitors at a food and tourism expo in Taiyuan, Shanxi province on Aug 26 were treated to an extraordinary array of wheat-based attractions, including an eight-meter-tall dough tower and several noodle-related Guinness World Records.

More than 40,000 people attended the three-day event, which was designed to promote Shanxi's local food culture and tourism.

The northern Chinese province is famous for its noodles and flatbreads, so wheat-based attractions took center stage. Visitors were treated to free "knife-sliced" noodles, which were made on the spot by 100 local chefs, while browsing the food products of the expo's 447 exhibitors from all around the country.

The expo also witnessed the birth of several Guinness World Records, such as the world's largest dough-knife and cauldron for cooking noodles.

However, the star of the show was undoubtedly an enormous model of Guanque Tower, one of China's most famous monuments, made entirely from dough and wrapped by polystyrene. It took more than 1,500 workers an entire month to carve the eight-meter, 3.65-metric-ton tower, according to the director of the project Zhang Yongjun.

Workers add the finishing touches to a 3,650-kilogram dough model of Guanque Tower at a food and tourism expo in Taiyuan, Shanxi province on Aug 26. [Photo/sxrb.com]