Dubai can now boast of having set the record for the longest gold chain – over five kms in length connected by over four million tiny segments linked everyday for ten hours by 100 craftsmen over 45 days.
Dubai: Dubai is no stranger to setting records. Largest, most magnificent, tallest, biggest, we’ve had these superlatives in the past, for among others, cakes, graffiti scrolls, buildings, metro links, sky dives, and fireworks displays. Adding another feather to its cap, Dubai can now boast of having set the record for the longest gold chain – over five kms in length connected by over four million tiny segments linked everyday for ten hours by 100 craftsmen over 45 days. It’s being called the Dubai Celebration Chain.
In the words of a tout peddling “designer handbags” near the Gold Centre in Deira: “There’s more traffic today because of the DSF gold chain rush.” Jewellery shops with Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor hoardings were lit up with fairy lights. Disney figures walked around the red carpeted entrance of a gold shop, inviting shoppers.
Visiting from Sharjah, businessman Sharfudeen Addu Samath, his wife Habiba Nisha Sharfudeen, and their son, had spent the entire day waiting for the chain to be unveiled. “We were here in the morning, around 9am, but after we finished shopping, people told us about this event, so we waited to see the chain as we were curious.”
His wife said she had never before seen anything like it, and no, she couldn’t imagine anyone putting it around their necks – “it’s a gold chain that no one can wear without falling down,” she laughed.
Another bystander, Dubai resident for 12 years, Guru Padadas, an employee of a diamond shop in the gold souq area, had sneaked out of his office to watch the unveiling of the chain. “It’s real gold,” he told Khaleej Times. “Awesome.. never seen anything like it!”
Interestingly, the ratio of men to women at the site was apparent. Very few women, many more men seemed interested in the expensive yellow rope, however, the women outnumbered the men at the gold souq, away from the unveiling ceremony, making the most of the DSF deals in the shops.
