Headless Qing statue has tourists scratching heads

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An over 200-year-old stone statue of a mythical tortoise has tourists and experts scratching their heads over exactly when and why its head went missing.

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) stele pedestal in Xianyang Museum, Shaanxi Province began making headway online after Weibo user "Shaanxi Huya" posted a picture on September 21, inquiring about the missing appendage.

Experts at the authoritative Forest of Stone Steles Museum in nearby Xi'an replied on its official Weibo that the incomplete pedestal was either broken or the stone was not big enough to accommodate a head.

The stone tortoise, or bixi, is often used as the base of stelae built as memorials to emperors or to signify an important event. Legend says bixi is one of the nine sons sired by the dragon.

Liu Xiaohua, an associate research fellow at the Xianyang Museum, explained the carved stele recounts the construction of the Weiyang Academy of Xianyang in 1786.

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