A man works on the base section of the world's tallest statue of Buddha in Leshan, Sichuan Province. The 71-meter-high Buddha received a preliminary face-lift last year.

More than 20 engineers have started giving a face-lift to the world's tallest statue of Buddha, known as "Leshan Buddha," which is situated in Sichuan Province.

Lu Lin, a local official in charge of the 1,199-year-old monument, said repairs to the statue are part of a massive maintenance project expected to cost an estimated 250 million yuan (US$30 million) - of which US$2 million was raised through World Bank loans.

The face-lift is expected to last until the end of August, he said.

The statue, which was put on the United Nations' World Cultural Heritage list in 1996, has been weathered by wind, water and acid rain as well as being damaged by visitors for years. Some of the curls on the head of the statue have broken off and the face has lost its color.

Experts have cleaned the body of the statue and filled in the cracks. They will install drainage devices and protection against wind and water.

The cliff-top Buddha is 71 meters tall and 28 meters wide.

It is 18 meters higher than the destroyed Buddha statue at Bamian Valley, Afghanistan, once thought to be the tallest in the world.

The head of the Leshan Buddha is 14.7 meters in length and 10 meters across. It is covered with 1,021 curls, each of which is large enough to support a large table.

Carving of the Buddha started in A.D. 713 and was completed in 803, during the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907).

Sichuan Province has enacted a regulation to protect local world heritage sites, the first local law of its kind in China and one of few similar regulations in the world, reported Xinhua news agency.

Sichuan's regulation bans the construction of hotels, guest houses, development zones and other related facilities in the core area of a world heritage site.