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Clockwise from top: Visitors enjoy a night at the Shanghai Expo. A long queue circles the Sweden Pavilion, which is a common scene at the Expo since its opening in May. Wu Huang / for China Daily The Spain Pavilion attracts visitors with its creative architecture.Jing Wei / for China Daily |
How will the massive Expo site be redeveloped when the event closes? Qian Yanfeng reports from Shanghai.
Standing on Expo Boulevard overlooking the magnificent display of international architecture in the Expo Garden, Feng Qi could not believe the marvelous pavilions will soon be razed to the ground.
"The architecture is so amazing; it's a pity that they are going to be pulled down," Feng said.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors like Feng who are curious to see the technology and culture show at the Shanghai Expo, flock to the event every day with unabated enthusiasm despite the heat and crowds. It's hard for many to believe that the 184-day carnival is going to last for only three more months.
But according to the rules of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the governing body of the World Expos, almost all the pavilions are slated for demolition after the event to make way for the redevelopment of the Expo site. Only a few structures will remain, including the China Pavilion, the Theme Pavilion, the Cultural Center, Expo Center and Expo Boulevard, which will become permanent landmarks on the site after the event ends at the end of October.
The redevelopment plans for the Expo site were finalized long ago, according to Wu Zhiqiang, chief planner of the Expo Garden. With the ending of the fair and the demolition of the enclosure fences and the temporary structures within, a new city center will arise from the 5.28-square-kilometer Expo site. A 0.2-square-kilometer plot between the Theme Pavilion and the Cultural Center, for instance, will be rebuilt into an international convention center, along with all the underground utilities put in place during the construction of the Expo.
The China Pavilion will become a Chinese history museum. A great part of the green land near the Huangpu River will also be preserved.
Government officials, however, have so far remained tight-lipped on the issues of the redevelopment of the rest of the Expo land. Huang Jianzhi, deputy director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, said the redevelopment plan is still under deliberation and that authorities want, first and foremost, to make sure the Expo operation is a great success, before getting down to the details of redevelopment.
The only official statement from the local government so far has been from Mayor Han Zheng, who said earlier that once the plan is finalized, it will be made public to solicit opinions. Han also said a great part of the land would be developed for "public interests."
But rumors that part of the Expo site is slated to be put up for auction for commercial development projects to help the government win profits are spreading like wildfire online. Many believe authorities need to recover the government's huge investment in the Expo, estimated at several hundred billion yuan, including citywide infrastructure spending.
The issue has turned out to be a conundrum, which, despite local authorities' efforts to try to cool negative publicity, has sparked speculations and debate among the public.
Prized land
Located in the city center striding the Huangpu River, the Expo site is now regarded as the most precious land resource in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the scrimmage for land near the Expo Garden by major developers started long before the event kicked off, which has also driven up expectations for land prices in the area.
Even though a plot of land bordering the Expo site on the Puxi side failed to sell in an auction in mid-July, many said the no-sale was due to an exorbitant price. Few people believe it will have any cooling effect upon the value of the Expo site.
The price of the Expo land could easily triple or quadruple by the time the event ends, according to Sun Yuanxin, deputy director of the Institute of World Expo Economy at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, a key government think-tank in terms of Expo economy. So the Shanghai government only needs to sell one third of the 5.28-square-kilometer Expo site to developers to recover all the costs, he said.
As to the remaining two thirds, one is the area where the five permanent structures will be retained to serve as public venues. Sun suggested that the other third be turned into green land to encourage sustainable urban development.
But according to Wan Zeng-wei, director of the Pudong Academy of Development, also a key district government think-tank, the redevelopment plan of the Expo Garden has so far failed to generate consensus among city authorities and planners.
In Pudong, which is home to about two thirds of the Expo Garden, authorities have yet to come up with a consensus regarding the specific development plans, he said.
"Although the general agreement is that the area should be developed into a major trade, convention and tourism center, authorities are divided on the details," he said.
Dai Xiaobo, a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily that one plan currently under deliberation is to develop the Pudong section of the Expo Garden as an extension of the Lujiazui Financial Zone, whose development has long been hampered by limited land resources. The extension would be critical to further Shanghai's reputation as a major international financial center by 2020, he said.
To do that, both section A and C of the Expo Garden on the Pudong side would be sold to developers to turn them into a finance and trade centralized area, he said. Section B is where the five permanent structures will be retained.
"While many remain skeptical about the government's motivation in selling the land for redevelopment, I think if the government makes decisions in line with the planning for the area, it is quite understandable. It's easy to see that this would stimulate the long-term development of the city and in turn benefit the public.
"But if the aim is to sacrifice public interests for short-term profit returns, then the credibility of the government would be greatly undermined," he said, adding the redevelopment would be a major test for the Shanghai government on whether it would uphold public interests in the urban area project.
Who owns the land?
Property rights disputes, still simmering between the government and big-name state-owned companies, may create problems in future development projects, Wan said.
Many run-down houses and factories were demolished to clear the way for Expo construction. China State Shipbuilding Corp and the Baosteel Co, both parent companies for the removed factories, maintain their ownership of the land, and the disputes have complicated the redevelopment issue.
"The government may have a difficult time negotiating with the companies, which of course want to pursue maximum interests. It's a zero-sum game between them," Wan said.
The lack of a confirmed official stance so far on the redevelopment issue has given rise to expectations that a few selected pavilions winning the hearts and favor of visitors - the vast majority of whom are Chinese - would be retained to serve as reminders of the mega-event.
Such an expectation is reinforced by the positive feedback from certain pavilions of their willingness to stay. Mara Tena, general commissioner of the Spain Pavilion, told China Daily recently that they "really hope the Spain Pavilion could stay in the Expo Garden as a permanent structure because the pavilion has transmitted a contemporary and modern image of Spain." She added that Spanish officials are trying to discuss future plans with authorities.
Beniamino Quintieri, commissioner general of the Italy Pavilion, also said Italian officials are "exploring plans to bring the Italian way of life captured in this beautiful pavilion to the other parts of China or possibly other parts of the world."
Earlier, officials from the Luxemburg Pavilion were quoted by media as saying that five of the most beautiful pavilions would be kept as permanent structures on the site, although organizers soon refuted the statement.
Lobbying for pavilions
Still, the public passion for a never-ending World Expo has been so strong that interested and earnest Chinese visitors are already trying various means to lobby governments of different levels to stop the indiscriminate removal of all the pavilions.
Earlier media reports said some residents in Shanghai and nearby Nanjing had made repeated phone calls to local government officials, calling for the reservation or relocation of as many pavilions as possible. Their logic is simple: Most Expo guests only visited a limited number of pavilions due to the notoriously long queuing times at most pavilions. Also, the estimated 70 million visitors are still less than 6 percent of the Chinese population. So keeping the main Expo structures would enable more to experience the event even after it finishes, people have argued.
One netizen who identifies himself as "phoenix" from Longyan, Fujian province, said on qq.com that he is willing to sacrifice his own farmland for the relocation of some pavilions to his hometown. This would allow many poor Chinese like him who could not afford a trip to Shanghai during the six-month duration to be able to experience the Expo after it draws the curtain.
Love for the Expo aside, many people also question the rationality of investing tens of billions of yuan in the building of these structures and then spending many more billions to pull them down. The construction of the Saudi Arabia Pavilion, for example, cost a reported 1 billion yuan. Tearing it down would cost 20 percent of its construction price, which is "clearly a waste of money."
Above all, ordinary folks have a genuine wish that the event could, with all its grandeur and glory, leave more tangible legacies to Shanghai and China. It could serve as a permanent landmark and transform itself into a public sphere that could embody the Expo theme of "Better City, Better Life" while promoting sustainable urban development practices.
"If all the structures are to be pulled down and the land sold to developers for commercial purposes, I think we would get nothing from the Expo except high land prices," said Feng, an Expo visitor from Xuzhou, Jiangsu province.
However, Huang from the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination said most pavilions, constructed to be temporary, are made from materials not meant to last long. So it would be technically difficult to keep and maintain those structures on site, let alone how to make better use of them after the show ends.
Sun Yuanxin also pointed out the conservation of structures designed to last only a few months would entail high maintenance fees in the long run. It also does not make sense to have empty pavilions on exhibition once the Expo finishes.
A more likely solution, he said, is to keep about a dozen or so pavilions under the agreement of the Chinese government and the nation that owns the pavilion, as testament to their friendship. This is a common practice judging from the international experience.
"This is more likely an outcome of diplomatic efforts. For the rest, they have the right to decide whether to be relocated (if there is a sponsor to support it) or simply demolished," Sun said.
Looking for sponsors
As it is, those nations keen to remain in China have been looking for interested sponsors since the beginning of Expo. Many local governments are aware of the potential tourism income that could be generated by the Expo pavilions, and have been actively luring different countries to move their pavilions to their cities. Wuxi in Jiangsu province, for instance, has already reached a deal with the Swedish government for the relocation of its steel and wood structure made up of four cube-like parts arranged to form Sweden's flag when seen from above.
Some academicians point to international practices to serve as a reference for the redevelopment of Expo Shanghai. At the Aichi Expo in Japan five years ago, for example, all the Expo structures were removed and the site was rebuilt into a youth training camp.
In 1988, Brisbane held a successful World Expo '88, following which the government intended to develop the site for commercial interests. However, a public campaign successfully lobbied for the site to be redeveloped as parkland for the enjoyment of people in Brisbane.
For professor Michael Keniger, senior deputy vice-chancellor for the University of Queensland, who is also a member of the board of the South Bank Corporation that is responsible for the development and management of the new South Bank Parklands redeveloped from the site of the Expo '88, public sphere is always an important element.
"Shanghai is one of the world's great cities. Now the city has an opportunity in its very center, by its river, to make a wonderful contribution to the ideas about future cities," he said.
"To do that well, it really has to learn to integrate high-quality public space, which will always be there, and strong urban ideas about planning streets and public transport. The city needs a mixture of public, commercial and government occupation to make it a vital place that people always want to come to."
Yang Yijun and Yu Ran contributed to the story.
