Hong Kong pavilion at Shanghai expo gets finishing touches

The Hong Kong pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo will be completed by the end of this month and will be able to accommodate up to 7,000 visitors a day when it opens, a government official said.

Patrick Chan Chi-king, director of the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in Shanghai, yesterday said finishing touches were being put on the HK$145 million pavilion and it would open, along with the rest of the Shanghai expo, for a trial run on April 20 before the official May 1 opening.

Chan said it would take about 20 minutes to complete a tour of the three-storey pavilion. With an exhibition area of 800 square metres, it accommodates 700 people an hour, or 7,000 per day, or more than 1.28 million visitors throughout the 184-day expo.

'We will showcase many things within a small space,' Chan said, adding that the exhibition would show off Hong Kong's modernity, infinite imagination and creativity.

The middle of the pavilion incorporates a large transparent and mirrored exhibition area. Henry Choi Wan-kit, project director at the Architectural Services Department, said the reflections signified the unlimited potential and creativity of Hong Kong. The mirrored exhibition area was enclosed in frameless glass to further emphasise the boundless opportunities open to Hongkongers, Choi said. Metallic parts on the exterior represented the myriad dense skyscrapers in Hong Kong.

The pavilion concept was developed by two Hong Kong architects, Billy Chan Wai-ching and Ida Sze Ki-shan, who were among 80 design professionals who entered a government competition in early 2008.