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Pavilion at Expo will be 'Crown of the East'

By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-21 09:40

SHANGHAI: The China Pavilion at the upcoming Shanghai World Expo will house an enlarged version of the panoramic painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" to reproduce the prosperity of an ancient city of China.

The painting, attributed to Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), will be reproduced in a version that is hundreds of times the size of the original, which was 24.8 cm by 528.7 cm.

The artwork shows a bustling festival scene from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, which is the city of Kaifeng today.

The piece will be a highlight of the host country's showcase building at the second international extravaganza. It will be displayed on the third exhibition floor, which stands 49 m above the ground in the 63-m-high structure.

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The China Pavilion, known as the "Crown of the East", is one of the largest and most important buildings to showcase China's economic power, during an expo that has an international scope similar to the Beijing Olympic Games.

"The host country's national pavilion is always the focus at a World's Fair, whose outlook and exhibition speaks out for the host country's perspective," Chen Xianjin, deputy director-general of Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau, said yesterday at a press conference in the city.

Other attractions of the pavilion will include a journey on a trolley car to explore China's traditional architectures such as arched bridges, landscaped gardens and wooden houses, designers said for the first time at yesterday's press conference.

Visitors also will be able to see a short movie directed by filmmaker Lu Chuan, director of the well-known movies "Kekexili: Mountain Patrola" and "City of Life and Death" at the pavilion.

The theme of the movie is "Chinese Wisdom in Urban Development."

"China is in the process of rapid urbanization, and we have a lot of wisdom to share," he added.

To display what the world's most populous country has to say at the 184-day party, the China Pavilion designated three floors for exhibition space.

The top exhibition floor, which covers a 8,500-sq-m area, will house green plants and show the life of new and old urban residents to reflect both cities and countryside.

According to the design team, which consists of artists from both the mainland and Taiwan, the exhibition plan of the China Pavilion was selected from 17 proposals sent by 31 teams from both home and abroad.

The 1.5 billion-yuan ($220 million) China Pavilion contains a national hall, and a 30,000-sq-m exhibition hall for provinces and regions. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have their own exhibition halls.

The pavilion's interior will be finished by next March and it will open for trial use in April.