“Better Cities Through Cooperation” Exhibition

The booming city of Shanghai was the focus of world attention for months last year as it hosted the splendid 2010 Shanghai World Expo. One of the highlights took place from September 6 to 12 when the CPAFFC held an exhibition with the theme of “Better Cities through Cooperation” in the Joint Pavilion of International Organizations of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. As an intern at CPAFFC， I was lucky to be chosen as one of the working staff for the exhibition， enabling me to gain much knowledge of the importance and glory of the people-to-people friendship work.

Eye-Catching Exhibition with

Creative Design

The Joint Pavilion of the International Organizations contained dozens of pavilions including the Pavilion of World Water Council (WWC Pavilion)， the Pavilion of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Pavilion)， the Pavilion of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG Pavilion)， the Pavilion of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA Pavilion)， etc.

The exhibition was decorated in the predominant colors of CPAFFC emblem’s pale blackish green and maroon. Through photos， texts， audio and video it gave a brief introduction of the CPAFFC， China’s international friendship city work and its cooperation with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). The exhibition area was elaborately arranged with details creatively designed. Pictures of the CPAFFC’s landmark main building and sculpture Long Live Peace were shown. Its beautiful overall design made the exhibition pavilion stand out among the dozen pavilions in the joint pavilion.

The poster in front of the exhibition was a popular background often selected by the visitors when they took photos， as it vividly displayed the image of CPAFFC’s main building， and in its front there was a huge frame with paintings of the world landmark buildings as well as peace doves and sunflowers. Visitors liked to carry artificial sunflowers with two Chinese characters “friend” and “goodwill” in their hands and have pictures taken against the big frame. While taking pictures， parents would teach their children the meaning of these two characters and tell them that the peace dove represents “peace” and “friendship”.

Our costume consisting of a blackish green blouse， an earth yellow skirt and a dark brown satchel was also specially chosen and matched to the predominant colors of the exhibition. The working staff of other pavilions admired the exquisite designs of our pavilion and costumes. I felt very happy and proud and admired the creativity and efforts the CPAFFC displayed and made for the exhibition.

Interesting Interaction Activities at the Exhibition

“Stamping” culture was popular in the Shanghai World Expo. After visiting a pavilion， visitors would like to have the seal of this pavilion stamped on their specially made “World Expo Passports”. This was a kind of win-win interaction activity， for visitors would keep it as a souvenir and at the same time through it the pavilion was publicized. Our pavilion was no exception. Our seal was the pattern of CPAFFC’s emblem and it was a specially made embossing seal. Every day there was a long queue of visitors in front of the information desk waiting for the seal to be stamped on their “passports”. Among them quite a number of visitors attracted by the fame of the CPAFFC specially requested to have the steel seal of the CPAFFC be embossed in their passports. After a day’s stamping， our hands felt numb. But when seeing the visitors’ expectation in their faces and smiles， we felt happy to do it.

Besides stamping， my daily work also included handing out questionnaires， giving prizes， making coffee on the spot for visitors， inviting visitors to take part in DV recording， etc. Through the work， I realized that in arranging an exhibition， planning diverse interaction activities with visitors would greatly enhance the publicity effect. The Department of European and Asian Affairs of the CPAFFC contrived a set of questionnaires. The visitors taking part in the activity needed to read the texts on the exhibition boards carefully to find the right answers and filled them in the questionnaires. The winner would get a prize—a CPAFFC’s emblem and a bamboo fan with the theme of environmental protection. The visitors enjoyed the activity and liked the prize very much. After the activity， some visitors left their comments and wrote good wishes for us on the guestbook.

Exhibition Climaxed with CPAFFC and UCLG Leaders’ Visit

September 10 was the most important day of the exhibition. On that day CPAFFC President Chen Haosu， CPAFFC Vice Presidents Li Xiaolin， Jing Dunquan and Li Jianping， UCLG ASPAC Secretary General Peter Woods， and UCLG Africa Secretary General Jean Pierre Mbassi among other foreign guests visited the exhibition. The CPAFFC leaders’ close and friendly relations with foreign guests could be seen clearly through their cordial conversation in a relaxed informal manner. It seemed that it was a meeting between good friends rather than between high-ranking Chinese officials and foreign guests. I think， this is just the advantage of the non-governmental diplomacy that the CPAFFC is engaged in， which spreads friendship between the people of various countries and regions. No wonder， after visiting the exhibition， Pierre Mbassi wrote the following comment on the guestbook “Build friendship between cities around the world and you will harvest love， peace， and harmonious life for all. This is the lesson learned from Chinese friendship sister cities experience. Let’s expand it and share it to build a better city for a better life.”

After visiting the exhibition， the CPAFFC leaders and foreign guests took part in the creation of a painting entitled “Local Governments and Cities Working Hand in Hand”. Its creation was also one of the interaction activities at the exhibition. Each participant stamped a seal of a peace dove on a large piece of white paper with the Chinese character “friend” as the background. The painting created jointly by all the participants on the spot implies the aims of the friendship work carried out by the CPAFFC and expresses the people’s aspiration for peace and friendship. Now this painting is displayed at the Exhibition of CPAFFC’s History.

The one-week exhibition soon ended. I learned a lot through this work. As a Chinese citizen， I feel proud of our country’s achievements in its foreign relations. As a young staffer dealing with foreign affairs， I also feel grateful that I learned some experience in holding exhibition. All this will become a wealth and driving force for my future work and encourage me to set my mind on making contributions to people-to-people friendship work.

Wish our country’s friendship work greater success.

Backgrounder:

From September 6 to 12， 2010， the CPAFFC and the China International Friendship Cities Association jointly mounted an exhibition with the theme “Better Cities through Cooperation” in the UCLG Pavilion at the Joint Pavilion of International Organizations of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The exhibition consisted of three parts: a brief introduction of the CPAFFC， the development of Chinese international friendship cities and Chinese local governments’ cooperation with UCLG. The exhibition attracted more than 20，000 Chinese and overseas visitors among whom nearly 2，000 took the quiz on the contents of the exhibition.

To express support and best wishes to the development of people-to-people friendship and cooperation among cities， CPAFFC President Chen Haosu， Vice Presidents Li Xiaolin， Jing Dunquan and Li Jianping， UCLG-ASPAC Secretary General Peter Woods， UCLG-Africa Secretary General Jean Pierre Mbassi joined the visitors of the exhibition in creating an artwork celebrating peace and cooperation.