EXPO Express

In Brief

France prepares its pavilion-inspired perfume, L’Eau de Parfum Pavillon

Romania breaks ground for its apple-shaped “Greenopolis”

A 97-year-old decorative gateway is en route to its Shanghai hometown

LA-based Chinese-American groups get the go-ahead for an Expo float in the 2010 Rose Parade

Participants

UK Pavilion Design Finalized

6/29/09 – Thomas Heatherwick today unveiled the final design of the 13.2 million euro (US$18.6 million) UK Pavilion. It will feature 60,000 7.5m-long acrylic “hairs” which will move with the wind, and have seeds from Kew Garden’s millennium seed bank embedded in the ends. Earlier proposals included an installation inside the 100-person capacity plywood cube that forms the core of the structure – the space will now be a “cathedral of seeds” with only the seeds on display. Heatherwick described the finished design as the “world’s largest ever hairy building,” with the interior space sharing the atmosphere of “the manuscript room at the British Library”. He added: “I think you’re going to hunger for simplicity at the expo and we’re going to be looking at quite a serious scientific issue in quite a low tech way.” [Anna Winston / Building Design website]

Sino-Finnish Ties, Expo Discussed

6/27/09 – Visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang met with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on Thursday. During their talks, Li highlighted several key points in developing Sino-Finnish relations, saying that both sides should attach strategic importance to their relations, further expand mutually beneficial economic cooperation, and create new areas for cooperation in culture and education. Vanhanen said the Shanghai Expo was a good opportunity for promoting Sino-Finnish relations, and that Finnish companies would actively participate in the event. Among other things, Li and Vanhanen joined a signing ceremony of several government and business agreements between the two sides, under which Li said China would purchase Finland’s advanced environment-friendly technologies. [Xinhua]

Romania Breaks Ground

6/27/09 – Romania held its pavilion groundbreaking on Friday. Designed as a green apple, the Romania Pavilion, also called “Greenopolis,” will have a budget of 2.5 million euros (US$3.5 million) and cover 2,000 square meters. Zhong Yanqun, Fulltime Deputy Director of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Executive Committee, said that she believes the unique and fresh design of the Romania Pavilion, with the shape of big green apple, will impress the 70 million Expo visitors. The pavilion will reflect the importance of a healthy lifestyle, sustainable development and knowledge-based solutions for modern society, Ferdinand Nagy, Commissioner of the World Exhibition of Romania, said Friday. Nagy also said Romania was trying to highlight a city’s historical and cultural heritage in order to understand, develop and translate this wisdom into a better quality of life for contemporary urban Romanian citizens. He said “Greenopolis” was a universal term, represented by the apple, which means health, knowledge, freshness, temptation and eternity. [expo2010.cn]

Liverpool Gets Lead Sponsor

6/26/09 – Developers Peel Holdings will be the lead sponsor of the Liverpool Pavilion at the Expo, it was announced on Thursday. The company will invest more than 100,000 euros (US$141,080) in the deal to become the headline sponsor of the pavilion. The article reads that the Expo is “regarded as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to consolidate existing and forge new relationships in the world’s emerging markets and is predicted to deliver up to 50 million euros (US$70.5 million) in benefits to Liverpool and the North West over the next decade.” Liverpool is the only UK city besides London to have a dedicated pavilion at the event. Lindsey Ashworth, development director at Peel, said: “The range of our group’s activities in ports, airports, renewable energy, media and property development across the North West makes the Liverpool Pavilion at the Expo an excellent fit for our organization. We will use the event as a platform to position investment opportunities and to showcase our expertise and credentials to a global audience.” [David Bartlett / Liverpool Daily Post]

Perfumes Inspired by Pavilion

6/25/09 – France has created two unique perfumes for the Expo. Their bottles will be shaped and wrapped in mesh like the France Pavilion. They will have the scent of white magnolia, which represents Shanghai, and were named after the pavilion – L’Eau de Parfum Pavillon France. The perfumes blend several aromas including ylang, jasmine, plumeria rubra, peony, lilac, rose and musk for women, and cardamom, mandarin, lotus, patchouli and sandal for men. The France Pavilion, dubbed “The Sensual City,” will showcase the sights, smells, tastes, sounds, feel and glamour of France. Jose Freches, president of COFRES, the company in charge of the pavilion, said the perfumes were designed because aromas will play an important role: visitors will smell roses in the Palace of Versailles and cream rolls in the French cafes, for example. The perfumes will go on sale in China soon, priced between 80 yuan (US$11.73) and 90 yuan. [Echo Hu / expo2010.cn]

China Pavilion Lights Up

6/23/09 – Hong Hao, director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, and Zhou Yongxing, head of Shanghai Municipal Power Company, kicked off operation for the substation that provides power to the China Pavilion on Tuesday. [expo2010.cn]

General Info

Decorative Gateway Comes Home

6/28/09 – After decades of dealer handlings and world expos, a 97-year-old decorative gateway will return home to Shanghai in time for the Expo. Song Haojie, deputy director of Shanghai’s Xuhui District Cultural Bureau, announced on Sunday that the historic piece had began its journey home in mid-June on a ship from Stockholm. The 5.8 meter high, 5.2 meter wide Tujiawan gateway bears dragons and lions on its four pillars. According to Song, ten children from the Tujiawan Orphanage, founded by Western missionaries 150 years ago, carved the monumental gateway with teak wood in 1912 under the guidance of a foreign craftsman. The gateway joined the World Expo in San Francisco in 1915, Chicago in 1933 and New York in 1939. It ended up in the world of collecting, moving amongst different owners, and in 1986 a Swedish architect set up a foundation for its restoration. [Xinhua]

Eastday: Ticket Sales Overview

6/26/09 – About 1.7 million Expo tickets have been sold since group sales began on March 27. Ten percent of those went to overseas buyers, the Expo organizer said. More than 5,000 corporate and institutional buyers have so far bought tickets, which will be available to individuals starting next Wednesday. Among domestic buyers, about 90 percent were from Shanghai. A standard single-day ticket costs 130 yuan (US$18.98), and a peak-day ticket costs 170 yuan until June 30, the end of the first sales phase. Both are 30 yuan cheaper than prices to be charged during the Expo. The public will be able to buy tickets from July 1 at more than 2,000 outlets across the country. The price for a standard single-day ticket will rise to 140 yuan and a peak-day ticket 180 yuan. Ticket hotlines, Websites and outlets are now available worldwide. [Eastday.com]

Yao Ming to Appear at Upcoming Expo Charity Gala

6/25/09 – NBA star Yao Ming will appear at an Expo gala on July 5 – the 300-day countdown to the Expo – as an Expo ambassador to help raise donations for children who suffered in the Sichuan earthquake and those in impoverished regions. Money raised at the gala will be used to buy Expo tickets for the children. The basketball player will also participate in other Expo events that day, to raise eco-friendly awareness among the public. [Hu Min / expo2010.cn]

Expo Float to Run in LA’s Upcoming Rose Parade

6/24/09 – Two Chinese-American groups in Los Angeles will jointly sponsor a float to promote the Expo in the 2010 Rose Parade New Year celebration. “We have secured the Shanghai Expo organizer’s authorization to use its logo and mascot on our float for the 121th Rose Parade in Pasadena,” Sue Zhang, president of the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations, told a press conference last Tuesday. Zhang said that her group and the Shanghai Landers’ Club will jointly sponsor the Shanghai World Expo float, and that wealthy Chinese-American businessmen have so far donated enough money for its design and building. Since it was launched on New Year’s Day in 1890 in Pasadena, a suburb town about 20 kilometers east of LA, the Rose Parade has become an international event watched by millions around the world. [Xinhua]

Shanghai Considers Homestays

6/24/09 – Shanghai might organize local residents to provide homestays during the Expo, a tourism official said last Tuesday. New regulations allow tourism bureaus to work with township, government and urban communities to offer homestays during important holidays, sports events and exhibitions, said Dao Shuming, head of the Shanghai Tourism Bureau. Last year, Shanghai had 6.4 million overseas visitors and the tourism industry was valued at 206 billion yuan (US$30 billion). [China Daily]

Web 3D Plug-in Authorized

6/23/09 – Dassault Systèmes’ 3D VIA Virtools has recently been authorized as the only recommended Web3D plug-in for the Expo Shanghai Online Experiencing Pavilion. Participants can use the lightweight Virtools product tailored by Dassault to develop their online Experiencing Pavilions. The article reads, “as a leading Web3D software solution, 3D VIA Virtools is used across the globe, especially in Europe and America, and offers 3D image production aiming to fully visualize interactive experiences.” Expo Shanghai Online will present an online version of the Expo, serving as an introductory channel, supplement and extension to the physical Expo. “By building a virtual space that doesn’t exist in the real pavilion, and with diversified virtual technologies and tools, participants will also be able to extend and expand their Expo themes and concepts,” the article states. Expo Shanghai Online (www.expo.cn) is scheduled to be partly launched within this year. [Shen Li / expo2010.com]