Jon Trausti Saemundsson (L), Project Manager of Iceland Emassy, speaks during an interview with Xinhuanet at the 7th Shanghai Expo International Forum held in Beijing, Nov. 12, 2009. ©Xinhuanet
By Wang Guanqun
BEIJING, Nov. 13 — Guests participating in the seventh Shanghai World Expo International Forum said their countries are actively preparing for the upcoming Expo 2010, and revealed some of their ideas to Xinhuanet.
Canada’s Expo 2010 Commissioner General Mark Rowswell, commonly known as “Da Shan” in China, said based on the experience of the previous Expos, Canada puts a lot of efforts on the Expo 2010.
“Not to boast myself, but the cooperation between Cirque du Soleil and me would be a feature in the Canada pavilion,” the Chinese crosstalk star talked in fluent Chinese, “we will use our extraordinary imagination to embody our theme, a theme of the ‘vigorous city’.”
“After its open-up, I believe the Canada pavilion will be one of the most popular pavilions in the park,” he added.
But Rowswell declined to talk further on the details inside the pavilion, joking “if we reveal this too early, there will be many countries imitating us.”
Iceland Embassy representative Jon Trausti Saemundsson told Xinhuanet that since they come from Iceland, they are creating the Iceland pavilion like an ice cube.
“People coming to visit the pavilion will be transferred into the ice cube,” he said, “so people come in will come into an area that they can smell the nature of Iceland.”
Saemundsso said they will cool down the area, so people will feel the chilling. And on the visitors’ way out, they will be given ice water, which are imported from Iceland.
“So visitors will be walking in the Shanghai Expo park with the ice from Iceland,” he said.
Commissioner General of Norway for Expo 2010 Arild Blixrud said they will show harmony of the nature in their pavilion.
“We will build up a pavilion in wood, not steel. So when people come to our pavilion, they can touch the nature,” he said, “we want to remind them, keeping a good contact with nature will make a society a good place for living.”
“The United Nations has declared Norway as a very good country for living for sixth consecutive year, and we want to tell people why it is so,” said he.
The Jamaica representative said in the exhibition in the Caribbean pavilion, there will be a traditional beverage displayed. Besides, some of the world’s top athletes from Jamaica will be invited to the pavilion to join the activities with the visitors.
Thursday marked the 170 days countdown to the opening of 2010 Shanghai World Expo. According to the Shanghai organizer, constructions of most pavilions have been started in the Expo park, which is expected to see some 70 million visitors in the 184 exhibition days.
(Xinhuanet correspondents Hui Meng, Liu Li also contributed to the story.)
On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/13/content_12447993.htm