What makes Germany Pavilion draw the crowd

 

The Germany Pavilion was one of the two pavilions in the World Expo 2010 Shanghai China that I managed to visit. We heard from various reviews that it is one of the pavilions that is worth visiting. I had queued slightly less than two hours to enter the Germany Pavilion. The time to queue may have been longer during the times when there are more visitors. What makes the Germany Pavilion draw so many visitors?

On the left is just part of the queue waiting to enter the Germany Pavilion.

First, the architecture of the Germany Pavilion is in many ways inspiring. The Germany Pavilion is designed to be a "three-dimensional walk-through sculpture with no defined interior and exterior". As visitors enter the Germany Pavilion, they will be treated to a relaxing simple stroll through a green landscape to the exhibit halls representing the different urban spaces.

 The theme of the Germany Pavilion revolves on the idea of a city in balance, "balancity". Through the various exhibits, visitors can gain an appreciation that an urban city can still be a sustainable and good place to live in "if it provides a balance between renewal and preservation, innovation and tradition, urbanity and nature, community and individual development and work and leisure."

For the visitors who have never visited Germany, the Pavilion treats them to snapshots of some of the beautiful cities in Germany. There are backdrops featuring almost life-sized images of some of the German cities. Visitors will be enticed to take photos against some of these backdops so as to imagine how it would be like to visit these German cities. I was in many ways enticed to visit Germany after visiting the Germany Pavilion.

There are a number of interactive exhibits in the Germany. In addition, visitors can look forward to view some of the latest green technology that will help make German urban cities sustainable and enjoyable places to live in. The pavilion also showcases various projects from the German art and cultural scene. Many of these exhibits appeal to people of all ages. My mother appeared to enjoy posing with the many interesting exhibits on display.

The Germany Pavilion also trained its volunteers from Germany to speak basic Mandarin. This, I see as a display of sincerity and thoughtfulness. The friendly chefs from the German restaurant that is based in the premises of Germany Pavilion took some time out to interact with the visitors too. That day when we visited the Germany Pavilions, visitors could even take photos with a pair of the aristocrats from Germany.

Completing the entire experience at the German Pavilion is an interactive performance titled "Energy Source". In this performance, Jens, a male mechanics student in a German university and female Chinese architect student Yan Yan who is visiting Germany introduce visitors to a special form of energy source. This performance is interactive and requires the participation of the visitors. In this performance, an interactive energy sphere weighing 1.2 tonnes and equipped with 400 000 LEDs hang from a four metre long rod. Its sensors react to the voices of the audience. According to the brochure that I had taken from the Germany Pavilion, the more people participating in the performance, the stronger the swing of the sphere.

I think the reason why the German Pavilion wins the heart of its visitors and draws the crowd are its commitment to excellence and its attentiveness in displaying good hospitality and sincerity. It was worth two hours to queue for.

References:
http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_gj_tpl_43.htm
http://www.expo2010-germany.com/en/