Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Shanghai

Admiration for the Saudi Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 does not stop at the design of the building, but it is also driven by a sense of astonishment at the technical and artistic level of the film shown on the immersive movie screen. 

Memorabilia collections for visitors or participants at Expos are no different from those of other international events such as the Olympics or World Cup.

The soccer team of the Saudi Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, won the championship of the mini World Cup tournament that was held between teams of the participating pavilions from 29 June to 8 July 2010, after beating the Chinese team 4-2 in the final match that was held at the Shanghai Sports City Stadium.

The Saudi Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 in China released a new version of its memorial gifts. It is a crystal rectangular cube with a 3D engraving of the Pavilion, the “Moon Boat”. Distribution to visitors started a few days ago, and Pavilion Director, Mr. Abdulhamid Hasan participated in handing out the first batch of the new gift, “the Crystal of Friendship”, as he labeled it, a symbol of friendship between the Saudi and Chinese governments and people.

"Better City, Better Life" is the slogan of Expo Shanghai 2010. For Saudi Arabia, this slogan was manifested in the transformation that the Kingdom's population witnessed during its modern history, from nomadic life to urban modern city life, as part of the wider industrial and economic development that influenced various aspects of living.

The Saudi Pavilion at the Expo Shanghai 2010 has been an overwhelming success since opening for the public on 1 May 2010. Thanks to its distinguished features and rich contents, which made the Saudi Pavilion the talk of the Expo, large crowds of Chinese Expo-goers were attracted, creating incessant waves of visitors to the pavilion since day one. This success has created the challenge of having to deal with the large numbers of people visiting the pavilion, which sometimes exceed 25,000 visitors a day. And that is where the need for a role by the Saudi students residing in Shanghai is most visible, as they contribute to the efforts of the pavilion by managing the queues lined with thousands and dealing with the public, relying on their linguistic skills to communicate with the Chinese citizens, supplying information, and answering questions.

From the tens of thousands that pass the Saudi Arabia pavilion every day at Expo 2010 Shanghai, many stop to photograph the 32 Saudi palm trees that stand tall before the pavilion in the “Friendship Garden”, which surrounds the main entrance and 57 more surrounding the rooftop Arabic oasis, sets the Saudi pavilion apart from all other pavilions at the Expo. Most of the Chinese who pass by the Saudi pavilion's palms think that they are coconut palms, which they are more familiar to, and have never seen or heard of date palms till this day.