Environmental messages go over visitors' heads
National pavilions promoting a sustainable lifestyle and a rethink of city planning at the World Expo in Shanghai are having a hit-and-miss impact on visitors, with many admitting the messages are going over their heads.
General concepts about environment and cultural diversity appear to have had an impact, but visitors tend to struggle to explain specifics about what they have seen.
'When I saw the ocean and the desert, I was filled with the desire to protect the natural environment,' said Tang Jiujiu , from Dalian , after visiting the Saudi Arabian pavilion with her sister. 'It made me question how we need to look after the world for the future.'
Other visitors tend to have a more direct reaction to what they saw.
'I loved the Taiwan pavilion. It really made me want to go there on holiday,' said one visitor from Wenzhou , Zhejiang province . 'In Thailand, they had a very nice display of traditional products, which taught me a lot about their culture.'
The displays in many national pavilions - largely relying on moving images without the use of words, to cross the language barrier - depict everyday life in contemporary cities around the world, mostly with a view to inspiring visitors to make a positive change to their environments.
'The UK pavilion is exceptional,' said one youth from Guangxi after visiting the building, one of the fair's top draws.
'Externally, it looks fantastic, and I loved the environmental message of the 'Seed Cathedral'.'
The heart of the building - a spiky, architectural fuzzball on the outside - features a series of acrylic rods containing seeds from thousands of different plants.
Unfortunately, not everyone was struck by the significance. 'Well, the tour guide did explain it, but frankly I didn't get it,' said Li Yiming from Anhui . 'It's just a bunch of seeds. What's that all about?'
Since its high-profile opening on Saturday, the multibillion-yuan expo has spectacularly failed to hit its attendance target.
During the fair's four-day holiday weekend opening, a total of 711,000 people visited - fewer than half as many as had been expected.
Visitor numbers continued to decline yesterday. About 85,600 people visited the site by the close of business yesterday, barely more than 20 per cent of the projected daily figure.
Amid overcast skies and muggy weather, much of the 5.28 sq km site was virtually deserted. Straggles of visitors were able to walk straight into most pavilions without queuing, zig-zagging their way swiftly through barriers set up to deal with much larger crowds. Waiting times at the handful of star buildings were even down to an hour or less.
The fair needs to maintain a daily average of 380,000 to meet the goal of 70 million visitors over its 184-day run.
There have been widespread expectations that the authorities will adopt unorthodox measures to meet their target - needed to beat the record attendance of 64.2 million set in Osaka in 1970 - and there were hints yesterday that there could be some truth to that.
Several groups of young men with identical cropped haircuts were seen striding in time in a military-looking formation.
'We're just ordinary tourists,' said the youth leading one troop, to the visible amusement of his companions. He declined to explain why he was wearing a security communications device in his ear.
