The top official of the Saudi Arabia Pavilion said?Tuesday he was more impressed with the patience of Chinese visitors rather than being in charge of one of the most popular venues at the Expo, in his summary of the entire event.
The Chinese visitors had shown great patience when waiting for hours outside the pavilion, and this would not happen in any other place, said Abdulrahman al-Shaikh, the Saudi commissioner general to the Expo.
Some people had to wait for up to nine hours to enter the pavilion that features a 15-minute film about the Middle Eastern country on a 360-degree, 1,600-square-meter screen, said to be the world's largest.
As the Expo draws to a close, many Expo pavilions have begun to summarize their performance and some are presenting farewell shows to the final visitors.
Qian Zhiguang, deputy executive director of the China Pavilion, told local media that the star-attracting China Pavilion would re-open for about six months from the beginning of December and the ticket price would be less than 80 yuan (US$12).
He said the pavilion would be open from around 9am to 5pm. The ticket would be similar to the Expo entrance ticket that visitors can retain as a souvenir.
"Most of the exhibitions, including the centerpiece animated show 'Along the River During Qingming Festival' and the 'Bronze Chariots and Horses,' known as the national treasure of China, would remain in the pavilion after the Expo," he said.
Qian said the pavilion was expected to receive 9 million visitors by the end of the event, exceeding former expectations.
The top official of the Oil Pavilion, another popular Expo venue, said his pavilion planned to produce an extended version of its 4D movie to play across the country after the Expo.
The popular 4D science documentary screened at the Oil Pavilion, which features the discovery of petroleum in China, will be remade after the World Expo to make it more enthralling, a senior official of the pavilion revealed yesterday.
The movie has been one of the most popular attractions at the Expo site and visitors also had to wait for nine hours to enter the Oil Pavilion.
The Expo had fewer visitors this week because only peak-day ticket holders can enter the site during the last week of the event. More than 300,000 visitors entered the site yesterday.
Standard-ticket holders must pay another 40 yuan to exchange a peak-day ticket to enter the site in the last week.