Donated landmarks could find use as art studios

Five popular foreign Expo pavilions will likely be kept at the site as public landmarks in Shanghai.

The pavilions of France, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Spain have been given to the city as gifts and will soon reopen to the public.

They will remain in the same location for up to 50 years, according to Ding Hao, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.

"We haven't decided yet how to use those buildings but one potential use is that they will be converted into art studios," Ding said.

Local authorities have changed their original plan to demolish the foreign pavilions and are working on a new plan for those five - or possibly more - pavilions.

"We're negotiating with the representatives of these pavilions on issues including the selection of the exhibits and how to display them," Ding said.

The items displayed in the pavilions during the Expo were removed after the six-month pageant concluded in October.

Ding added the demolition plans of other pavilions are also temporarily on hold.

The majority of structures built for a World Expo are temporary and dismantled at the end of the event. Notable exceptions include the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Space Needle in Seattle.

Zhu Hang, associate director of the research center under the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, said local Expo officials changed their minds on the plan for the Expo Garden because those pavilions were given to the government as gifts.

The Italian and Spanish pavilions have already signed formal donation agreements with the bureau while negotiations with Saudi Arabia, France and Russia are still under way.

The possibility of more pavilions remaining in Shanghai was good news for many local residents and tourists.

"I'm quite glad that those extraordinarily designed pavilions will be kept to remind the next generation of the Expo," said Zou Jianqing, a local retiree.

AFP contributed to this story.