The China Hall is separated into various sections for exhibitions from all provinces. The top of the hall is reserved for national booths. This national show section is the only arena allowed to accept donations from people of all ranks.

According to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo Coordination Bureau, since the donation acceptance was announced in September 2007, countless Chinese, including overseas Chinese, flooded their donations, including one yuan from primary school pupils, 10 yuan from laid-off workers, and hundreds of yuan from businessmen. On April 22, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. from Hong Kong, jointly donated 100 million yuan, the largest single donation.

No matter whether it is one yuan or 100 million yuan, the donation symbolizes the concern of the Chinese for the China Hall, said the Shanghai 2010 World Expo Coordination Bureau.

As people show high concern to the China Hall, there might be criticism, as China halls had in previous sessions, said Yu Qiuyu, a famous culture scholar in Shanghai.

"The China Hall was always very large in size in previous sessions, and audiences from various countries would show high expectations on the China Hall," said Yu, who took part in the previous two sessions of the World Expo.

"Many audiences were disappointed with the China Hall, as there were few cultural images that really attract audiences of contemporary days." said Yu.

"Audiences of other countries would largely seek the vitalities behind cultural innovations in the hall of China, an economic powerhouse. However, in our previous exhibitions, we always stressed the four great ancient inventions, the Peking Opera facial make-up, and the Great Wall," said Yu.

"It means a real test will follow after we have completed construction of the 'hardware' for the China Hall. We need to think about what 'software' we are to show in this grand hall," said Yu.

RECEPTION CAPACITY

As the Shanghai 2010 World Expo tickets go on sale, more people say they expect to personally go into the China Hall to watch the exquisite exhibitions. If the exhibitions in the China Hall are to be as equally as stunning as the building itself, the organizer faces some challenges, industry officials said.

In previous world expos, the national hall of the host country was the most popular to audiences. People would queue for hours to enter the host country hall. To accommodate enthusiastic audiences, the host country halls were largely built much bigger than all other halls.

Take the Germany Hall at the 2000 Hannover World Expo, which could receive 26,000 visitors a day. The Japan Hall of the Aichi World Expo 2005 was also able to meet 12,000 visitors a day.

According to the organizing committee of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, the Shanghai Expo is expected to attract 70 million visitors from across the world with its 200 exhibition halls and other facilities.

In designing the China Hall, the organizer has fully considered the element of swarming audiences.

"Although the China Hall is the biggest in area compared with itself in all previous world expos, enabling it to receive a record high of 40,000 audiences a day, the capacity remains too small, considering about 400,000 people will enter the world expo quarter each day," said Qian Zhiguang, head of the preparatory group of the China Hall.

"It means only one-tenth of the audiences will be able to walk into the China Hall. Think about the moods of audiences coming from afar, and the situation is too severe," said Qian.

"However, it is not economical and realistic to build a hall boundlessly large," said Qian. "The experiences of previous expos show the biggest hall would not accommodate one-tenth of total visitors in the quarter in a day. So, the best solution is to have all halls most admirably demonstrate the world expo theme and unique feature of each participating country and international organization, so as to attract as many visitors," said Qian.

The Shanghai Expo organizing committee is racking its brain to solve the reception limit problem.

One method, the organizer said, is to keep the China Hall intact for a period after the Shanghai 2010 World Expo ends, to serve audiences.

The organizer is preparing to tap into the Internet to hold an "online World Expo". This way, many people could take a close look at everything in the China Hall from their computer screens at home. "This will somehow offset the regrets of some visitors who fail to go to the China Hall by themselves," said Qian.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2009)