Monday, November 5, 2018 CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION 8 CHINA INTERNATIONAL IMPORT EXPO Clover design signifies flowering of new era Venue’s four leafs highlight event’s strength of diversity and unity of purpose By WANG YING in Shanghai
[email protected] Like the host city of Shanghai, worldfamous for its mix of tradi tional Chinese and global culture, the main venue for the China Inter national Import Expo also offers par ticipants a similar feel, said a chief designer of the expo center. Entering the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), white magnolias, the city flower of Shanghai, are on prominent dis play as well as traditional Chinese ceilings, wooden sculptures, gar dens in the traditional style, and the CIIE’s mascot Jinbao, a giant panda wearing a scarf, adds a wel coming touch. “The convention center has blended new and modern Chinese features,” said Fu Haicong, chief architect of the East China Architec tural Design & Research Institute, a unit of leading Chinese architecture firm Arcplus Group responsible for the center’s design. The institute also designed one of the artificial islands that connect the world’s longest sea bridge, the Hong KongZhuhaiMacao Bridge that opened in late October. “For example, the building looks The National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai lights up the night sky. The sixday China International Import Expo opened at the center on Monday. DING TING / XINHUA like a fourleaf clover from a bird’seye view. In Western culture, building into four parts with the ited to 43 meters due to its vicinity area of 1.47 million square meters, All of the center’s 16 exhibition enhanced the NECC’s handling it is a rare variation of the common south square as the main entrance of to Shanghai Hongqiao Internation almost 2.5 times that of the Shang halls are huge — the 13 main halls capabilities,” said Fu.