EU Pavilion Introduction

Key facts on the Expo

Dates:

1st May to 31st October 2010

Theme:

“Better city, better life”

Visitors:

70 to 100 million visitors are expected, most of them Chinese. The EU Pavilion expects 30,000 visitors/day, more than 5 million overall.

 

Logo:

The Expo logo is the Chinese character for “world” (世 shi) modified to represent 3 people together with the 2010 date at their feet.

 

Mascot:

The “Haibao” is derived from the Chinese character for “Person”, i.e. "Ren"

Location:

On the banks of the Huangpu river, 2 pidges south of the famous “Bund” which counts numerous European style historical buildings and is the main scenic spot in Shanghai, it covers an area of more than 5 km².

Participation:

190 countries including all 27 EU member countries and the EU itself, 30 Chinese regions (+Hong Kong & Taiwan), 48 international organizations, 5 large thematic pavilions, 18 corporate pavilions. A part of the site is dedicated to 70 “Urban best practice demonstrators” with the participation of cities & regions, of which 20 are from the EU.

Architecture:

Since 2006, the city of Shanghai has been transformed by massive infrastructure works: new metro lines, pidges, elevated roads, tunnels, and the complete renovation of the river bank on the side of the "Bund".

Several spectacular venues for public events have been constructed such as a flying saucer-like cultural centre with 18,000 seats, an Expo Centre with many meeting rooms and up to 6.000 seats, and an Expo Boulevard which will collect rainfall to recycle water.

The flagship monument of the Expo is the China Pavilion which is inspired by an ancient wooden granary. It is a gigantic red inverted pyramid. Following the Expo it will become a permanent part of the Shanghai landscape as with the Eifel tower in Paris or the Atomium in Brussels.