SHANGHAI, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Cities should facilitate interaction and provide spaces so people can bond, says Chui Huili, director of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.
The Taiwan Pavilion, a transparent cube with a huge globe suspended in its center, consists of three layers: a dome-screen cinema showcasing scenes from Taiwan, a platform to "fly lanterns" -- a traditional way to pray for luck, and a huge tree made of bamboo, providing shade for people to sit, chat, taste Kung Fu tea and listen to folk music.
"Though the Taiwan Pavilion is relatively small, what makes us stand out is that the whole trip is accompanied by guides and we allow in only 40 visitors at most each time, making it possible for each visitor to enjoy their time and space the fullest, in the 20-minute tour," Chiu says.
The pavilion, 650 meters wide and about 24 meters high, is mainly made of steel and glass, with the outlines of the island's iconic mountains painted on the facade and water from Taiwan's Sun Moon Lake forming a pool, Chiu says.
An elevator first takes you to the third floor for a dome-screen film showcasing tourist attractions in Taiwan including Sun Moon Lake, Ali Mountain and Jade Mountain. Chiu calls it their "future cinema" as spectators could watch three-dimensional images without wearing 3D glasses and get the feeling they were walking in a film.
The second floor provides a multimedia lantern-flying ceremony for at most 40 visitors. They can select "wishes" through touching screens and trigger off LED lanterns that light up the center globe. The wishes favored by visitors include "love and peace," "best wishes come true" and "happiness and health."
Spiraling down the pavilion, you come to the last stop: a huge banyan tree made of bamboo knitted together. There a Taiwan artist will play the guqin, a traditional musical instrument, while visitors sit chatting and sip Kung Fu tea.
"The third floor represents technology. The second floor is about cities' application of technology or the connection between technology and cities. But all these should serve the most important things in cities: people's hearts," Chiu says.
Chiu believes cities should facilitate interaction between people. "Most villagers keep a big tree in front of their houses in traditional rural Taiwan, providing places for villagers to drink tea, chat and sing or listen to folk songs," Chiu says.
"Similar places are necessary in cities to bond people together," he says.
Zhao Qiang, a visitor from Kaifeng in Henan Province, says, "I felt like I was really walking through Taiwan's sceneries in the dome-screen film ... It was terrific. I will definitely take my family to go sight-seeing in Taiwan after the visit."
Zeng Heng, a visitor from Taiwan, queued for almost three hours before entering the Taiwan Pavilion. "The Taiwan Pavilion is small and the most exquisite of all 12 pavilions I've visited. The sky lantern allows visitors to interact with the culture," Zeng says.
Chiu believes the Taiwan Pavilion can boost tourism in Taiwan and serve as a remarkable platform for cross-Strait peoples to understand each other better through interaction and exchanges.
The Shanghai Expo, opening on May 1, had received 10 million visitors as of midday Saturday, the event's organizers said.
