China Pavilion considers new rules

The organizer of China Pavilion is considering some new admission measures including allowing people to queue for the pavilion and opening reservation machines across the Expo site, officials said yesterday.

But the current main method remains handing out 40,000 tickets a day by volunteers at Expo entrances, said Xu Wei, spokesman for the Expo Bureau.

The organizer might also let those who collect stamps from pavilions in the Urban Best Practices Area at the Puxi site to have quicker access to the national pavilion, said deputy pavilion director Qiang Zhiguang.

Some foreign national pavilions such as Spain and Germany have started providing quicker access to those who have been to their UBPA cases in Puxi.

An additional 25 percent more visitors can get in to the China Pavilion and there will be less waiting time if people "visit by the rules," said pavilion director Xu Hubing.

The organizer called on visitors to come within the time period stated on their reservation tickets, believing it could be an effective way to let more people in and shorten the queue.

With entrance based solely on reservation tickets, the star-attraction pavilion has hosted 38,400 visitors on average each day since the Expo opened on May 1.

Its daily capacity was expected to be 50,000 visitors.

On average, each visitor now has to wait for at least an hour before entering the pavilion

Most people show up ahead of their reserved time, making large crowds at the entrance during the day, Xu said.

People don't need to wait if all visitors arrived during the recommended periods, said deputy director Qiang.

Nearly a million visitors have been through the China Pavilion since the Expo opening on May 1. The figure includes attendance at the national pavilion of China, known as the "Crown of the East," and the Joint Chinese Provincial Pavilion.

Also, the China Pavilion will soon have a new "national treasure exhibit" to replace the current "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" that will return to Liaoning Museum.

The new exhibit will be more precious than the painting, Qiang said. The pavilion has a section on the second floor named "National Treasure" in which visitors stand on a moving belt to watch the painting.

The new exhibit is possibly the "Bronze Chariot and Horse" sculpture, the precious centerpiece of the terra cotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).

The well-preserved sculpture, among the top national treasures of China, was unearthed in 1980 among the terra cotta soldiers in Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi Province.