China Pavilion rocks top spot for a fifth day
- Source: Global Times
- [09:51 May 06 2010]
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By Duan Wuning
Visitors walk along an elevated path in the Expo park Wednesday after the first rainfall of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Photo: Duan Wuning
Even though a record-low number of visitors showed up at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai Wednesday, the China Pavilion was still the most popular at the party, turning down hopeful groupies after its tickets ran out early in the morning for a fifth consecutive day.
With less than 80,000 visitors making an appearance, the fewest number of tourists to hit the park since the six-month show opened, the modest figure served as a crowd pleaser to many tourists.
One couple from Guangdong Province, who unsuccessfully attempted to get China Pavilion vouchers a day earlier, attributed the smaller crowd to their good fortune.
"We came at 6 am, and we were so lucky to get the vouchers," the husband surnamed Zeng told the Global Times Wednesday. "There are fewer people here today, and that definitely helped."
With a daily capacity of 50,000 visitors allowed into the structure dubbed "The Crown of the East," visitors need to be up bright and early if they are to stand a chance at getting entry into the pavilion.
"The vouchers were all gone within 15 minutes today," a ticket sales officer at Gate 5, situated on Gaoke Road West in Pudong New Area, told the Global Times Wednesday. "First come, first serve; if you want a voucher, you better show up early."
Meanwhile, organizers made it clear Wednesday that 13,000 of the total number of vouchers for the Chinese mainland tour are set aside for group tour visitors following complaints from travel agencies days earlier that their customers had difficulty obtaining the vouchers.
Yet despite the craze surrounding the China Pavilion, not everyone was so desperate to get in Wednesday.
"With all these people visiting I don't mind taking a pass," local resident Zou Panyi told the Global Times Wednesday. "It will be one of the permanent structures so I can always visit it after the Expo."
