The World Expo opened in Shanghai on May 1st and already the New Zealand pavilion has been popular. It is situated very near China’s pavilion.
New Zealand’s 2,000 sq metre pavilion cost our government and sponsors $30 million. NZ hopes that we will increase our exports to China. We also want more tourists and students from China to come to our country. Near the gate-way, are screens with information about New Zealand which visitors can download to their cell phones. Inside the pavilion is a VIP lounge where 175 businesses during the next six months, will host functions like cocktail parties, with a total of 7,000 guests. Outside the VIP lounge is a living wall, a wall of living green plants.
Outside the pavilion, to entertain the crowds while they are standing in line, is a group of Maori performers and five Maori carvers who are carving the 10m high wooden gate-way. Already two thirds of the carving is finished. Just inside the entrance is a very large piece of pounamu, the Maori name for New Zealand greenstone. It weighs 1,800 kg and has water flowing over it. People can touch it. Jade has a special meaning for Chinese people as well as for New Zealanders.
The roof-top garden shows New Zealand’s landscape. It starts up high with mountain grasses, forest with tall tree ferns, then grassland, goes past a bubbling Rotorua mud pool, and it finishes down at the sea with a beautiful beach. Beside the beach is a 12m high Pohutukawa tree, the New Zealand Christmas tree, in full flower. It looks real but is actually man-made.
The landscape includes a kiwi-fruit vine which was grown in China for our pavilion. Perhaps Chinese people do not know that the kiwi-fruit came from China in 1903. It was called the yang tao, but New Zealand called it Chinese gooseberry. In 1952, we changed the name to kiwi-fruit.
Note: a VIP is a Very Important Person
Questions to think about
Do we need more tourists? What are benefits? What problems are there with more tourism?
The cost of the pavilion is only one part of the total cost. Other costs include staff living in Shanghai for 6 months. Is this a good use of money?
Numbers to listen for:
There are a lot of numbers here. Can you write them down as you listen?
Size and cost of pavilion, number of functions and guests in VIP lounge, height of gate-way, fraction of gate way finished, number of carvers, weight of pounamu, height of Pohutukawa tree, date that kiwifruit came to New Zealand and date that the name changed.