Germany and China move in together for the Expo

Among the landscape of vast pavilions at the Shanghai Expo, the German-Chinese House stands out with its light, elegant and futuristic design.

The facade of the "German-Chinese House" constructed with Chinese Julong bamboo.

The German installation artist Markus Heinsdorff created the construction of special-size Chinese Julong bamboo for the bi-national event series "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together".

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According to the organizer, "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" is not a nation, region, city, or company. Rather, "we are an event with four walls", says Michael Kahn-Ackermann, head of the Goethe-Institute in Beijing and director of the project.

As a bi-national event series, it is unique at the EXPO. Under the joint patronage of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Federal President Horst Kohler, the initiative has made stops in five important regional centers in China within the past three years.

With over 1.3 million visitors at the previous stations, it has become Germany's largest event series abroad and has advanced exchange and communication between Chinese and Germans. This dialogue now continues at the world exhibition, which will be the last station and the highlight of the series.

The House will be open in May and June. As one of the shortest and smallest appearances, "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" also demonstrates that content is more important than size.

Inside the house, the theme is sustainable urbanization, which has been the focus of the three-year event series and corresponds well with the EXPO's motto "Better City - Better Life".

Within an interactive city game, visitors are introduced to the challenges of urbanization and can build their own virtual city. In cooperation with the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, the RWTH Aachen, Germany's largest technical university integrated the Chinese tradition of shadow play with modern computer technology for this state-of-the-art game.

The house also has an exhibition about sustainable urban development. The bamboo building itself is an artistic expression of this theme. At the EXPO, "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" is also represented in the Forum of the German Pavilion, located only a few minutes walking distance from the German-Chinese House.

In the German Pavilion, the initiative presents 10 lively examples of the dialogue between Germans and Chinese in the fields of culture, business, science and education.

These include new approaches and solutions, the official partners Allianz, BASF, Daimler, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL and Siemens developed during the past three years of supporting "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together". Representatives of the partners and other individuals who took part in the event series tell their story about the exchange of experiences and what they learned within many inspiring and constructive dialogues.

"The participation of "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" at the EXPO is not a matter of course and shows the importance China attaches to intercultural dialogue", said Michael Kahn-Ackermann.