South Africa Pavilion Celebrates The Opening Of The World Cup; Passionate Collision Between The Expo Park And The World Cup

At the same time as the opening ceremony of the World Cup held in Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa, the South Africa Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo also held a joyful celebration to celebrate the opening of the World Cup. As a common festival of the world, the World Expo and the World Cup collided passionately in the Shanghai World Expo Park on the 11th.

In order to welcome the arrival of the World Cup, the South Africa Pavilion has put up a notice board of "Closed" at 5:00 p.m. that day. South Africa is the first country on the African continent to host the World Cup. The South Africa Pavilion invited guests from all the 32 World Cup participating countries' national pavilions at the World Expo to celebrate this historic moment of South Africans.

Although China was once again excluded from the World Cup itself, as the host country of the World Expo, Chinese guests were also invited to the South Africa Pavilion, including football celebrities Fan Zhiyi, Zhu Guanghu and former Miss World Soccer Sun Wen. Unlike the opening ceremony of the World Cup held in Johannesburg, the performers of all the programs at the ceremony held in the South Africa Pavilion that day were from China.

After presenting a wonderful drum performance for the ceremony, Jin Jin, the artistic director of Beijing "Gather Infinite Light and Shadow Art Troupe", said that their program was selected by the curator of the South Africa Pavilion among many programs. The World Expo and the World Cup are festivals celebrated by the whole world, and they are honored to perform on such a stage.

In the exhibition space surrounded by the South Africa Pavilion, although the contents of South Africa's participation in the World Expo are still playing on the big screen, the theme of the South Africa Pavilion on the evening of the 11th has completely changed into football and the World Cup.

The South Africa Pavilion has indicated in the invitation to the event that all guests are welcome to wear casual clothes or their own supporting team's jerseys; Once entering the South Africa Pavilion, the exciting theme music of the World Cup, various football related performances, beautiful fans wearing gorgeous wigs, the sound of the long horn with South African characteristics and the bright smile on the faces of football fans with different skin colors have turned this World Expo venue, which is crowded in the daytime, into a gathering place for people who love football.

As a staff member of the South Africa Pavilion, Gilbert said that his task tonight is to create the same atmosphere in China as in Johannesburg, and tell people that the first World Cup held in Africa in history has begun in South Africa.

Kumar Le, the General Representative of the South African Pavilion and the Consul General of South Africa in Shanghai, said that the opening of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was of great significance to South Africa, because South Africa was the first country in Africa to host the World Cup. In combination with the theme of the World Expo, Kumar Le also said that in addition to the wonderful football matches, this World Cup has brought long-term benefits to South Africans to improve the lives of residents, including new or renovated stadiums and gymnasiums, new roads and railways, improved health care measures, as well as great energy conservation goals and measures to promote social security.

On the 11th day, the South Africa Pavilion was not the only one holding similar activities in the Expo Park, making full use of the World Expo as a worldwide communication platform. Mexico, the opponent of South Africa in the opening game of the World Cup, also placed a huge projection screen in the city theme pavilion and its own pavilion, inviting representatives of the top 32 countries in the World Expo to watch the opening ceremony and the first game of the World Cup.

At noon on the same day, the German Pavilion also took advantage of the football craze brought about by the World Cup to hold an ingenious football shooting match - "Hygiene World Cup" in front of its own stadium, which is intended to appeal to the public to pay attention to the water and sanitation problems in Africa. The organizers of the event set up two goals on a board with the words "Hygiene World Cup". The goal was designed to be a toilet like, representing sanitary facilities and clean water.

Han Rui, a senior public relations consultant of German Technical Cooperation Co., Ltd., the sponsor of the event, said, "Every 20 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies of contaminated drinking water and poor sanitation. We hope that the appeal of football can draw people's attention to areas lacking clean drinking water and sanitation."

Du Shumeng, the curator of the South Africa Pavilion of the World Expo, who came to participate in the event and created the first goal, also agreed with the significance of the event: "Such an event can save many people's lives, not only make people pay attention to the World Cup, but also help people living in a poor living environment."