Nepali Pavilion witness more visitors than expected

KATHMANDU - Shanghai Expo 2010 is the world' s largest exposition featuring 189 international pavilions and 50 pavilions from multinational agencies.

Considering this Expo as a best platform to evaluate oneself and to learn from others, Nepal has also erected a biggest pavilion in its history perspiring with all efforts so that it can grab boundless opportunities during the 184 days.

"Normally, rooms inside Nepali houses get full when 30 people get in. Compare to the visitors visiting Nepali Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, rooms inside have become smaller though they are extra ordinarily bigger in size than they are in Nepal," said Binayak Shah in a recent interview here with Xinhua.

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"Nepali Pavilion is erected in Nepali traditional style as per which heights of the houses little short. Though we have made houses and whole pavilion bigger, but it seems smaller when thousands of people enter inside," Shah added.

Shah is a Project Director of Implementing Group, an official organizer for Nepal's national participation at Shanghai Expo. According to him, everyday 40,000 visitors flock at Nepali Pavilion. The pavilion established within the 3,600 square km becomes congested. The Nepali Pavilion is hoarded by visitors more than expected, the organizers have realized.

Since unpredictable numbers of visitors are visiting Nepali Pavilion, organizer has also tripled the number of staffs. "In the beginning we thought only 15 of us Nepali can handle the whole pavilion. But right now we are more than 100 including 20 Nepali and 57 Chinese staffs and rest of others are Chinese volunteers to guide the Pavilion," Shah told Xinhua.

"Managing such a huge volume of queue is one of the biggest challenges," Shah further shared his experience of managing queue of thousands of visitors trying to visit Nepali Pavilion.

According to Shah, the organizer are planning to increase number of staffs and volunteers for two weeks to manage the soaring volume of visitors for during Nepali Pavilion's National Day on September 3.

"Since Nepali Pavilion is next to Chinese Pavilion, it is attractively visible to those who visit Chinese Pavilion. This is one of the reasons most of them drop by Nepali Pavilion," Shah said, adding "when visitors look around from the Chinese Pavilion, the Nepali Pavilion looks different and attractive than other high tech pavilion of the developed countries so they got motivated to visit our pavilion."

In line with the Expo theme "Better City: Better Life", the Nepali Pavilion reflects the capital Kathmandu its architectural, artistic and cultural center that has developed over 2,000 years. "To reflect the impact of urbanization over art and culture, Nepal has established "Mini Nepal" with the theme "Tales of Kathmandu."

"We expect at least 7 million visitors which is 10 percent of total Expo visitors to visit Nepali Pavilion during the six months, " Shah said.