From left: United States Consul General in Shanghai Beatrice Camp, US Expo Commissioner General Jose Villarreal, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Shanghai Vice Mayor Yang Xiong, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Commerce Ma Xiuhong and Director General of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination Hong Hao attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the US Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Pudong yesterday.
US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke delivers a speech.
Construction started on US Pavilion yesterday morning.
Shortly before the ground-breaking ceremony, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng met US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke. Locke was in Shanghai to kick-start the construction of the US Pavilion, which began in earnest yesterday.
Han said the World Expo would boost bilateral exchanges between China and the United States in areas including the economy, trade, culture and technology.
US pavilion is one of the biggest pavilions built by participants. Han added that he is looking forward to new philosophies of future life style staged by the US Pavilion.
Han also said that Expo 2010 will give solutions for sustainable development in the future.
Locke told Han that the United States took the opportunity of the World Expo seriously on a number of levels, including the promotion of US-China ties.
"There is no better city to host the World Expo with the theme of 'Better City, Better Life' than such a diversified and vibrant city as Shanghai," he said. "It's the right place at the right time for the entire world."
Locke said the US would showcase the country's technology, services and lifestyle to Expo visitors.
The event provided a perfect platform to demonstrate the technology of clean energy, which may become "the greatest opportunity of the 21st century," Locke added.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter of congratulations to US Expo Commissioner General Jose Villarreal.
Expo 2010 represented the achievement by the world's efforts, tackling global challenges with coordinated move and advances through international cooperation, Clinton said in her congratulation letter.
At the ground-breaking ceremony for the US Pavilion, Shanghai Vice Mayor Yang Xiong said that the Expo organizer and the city government had waited for this moment for a long time.
Shanghai Expo organizers will spare no efforts to serve the Expo participants including United States, Yang added.
The US Pavilion will be composed of three parts -- two elliptical buildings and a circular theater -- and will feature three chapters: the pre-show, the main show and the post-show, with a theme of "Celebration 2030."
