-- Dialogue with Pavel Stehlik, Commissioner General for World Expo 2010 Czech Republic Exhibition Section
                                                                                            Written by ZhaoHong   
                                                                                        Photographed by Jiang Ying

On February 7, 2007, Czech Republic confirmed to take part in Expo Shanghai and decided to use the 2,000-sqare-meter rented pavilion at Zone C of the Expo Site.

On January 11, 2008, Czech Republic submitted to the Organizer its Theme Statement titled as "Fruit of Civilization".

On January 23, 2008, Czech Republic officially signed the Participation Contract with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and became the 12th agreement-signing nation for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China.

To his great delight, Mr. Pavel Stehlik, Commissioner General for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China Czech Republic Exhibition Section, said that Expo Shanghai would be an excellent stage to display Czech and he welcomed Chinese friends to Czech for sightseeing. Then he added humorously, "But don't swarm into Czech, because it is too small." 

The theme of Czech Pavilion is "Fruit of Civilization", which indicates that city itself is the fruit of human civilization, and for the better development of city, fruitful technological innovations emerged. Therefore, people can find different types of human civilizations in cities and what Czech wants to present at Shanghai World Expo is the plentiful and substantial "fruit" produced during its process of urbanization.

"Strange Fruit" Produced in the Process of Urbanization

Mr. Pavel Stehlik told us that there is a peculiar phenomenon in Czech: many Czechish possess houses in the rural areas for the summer holidays, and they will bring their whole families from the urban areas to the rural areas during the holidays and then go back to their urban homes after the holidays. "This phenomenon reflects the love and worship of nature among the Czechish, but a series of issues such as traffic will inevitably arise. We need to think about how to solve these issues. The process of deepening the theme of Czech Pavilion is the process to solve the issues, and after the planning of the exhibition section, we will give you a definite answer. I think this will be a great surprise to you, but the surprise must be retained till the last moment."

In order to better embody the theme of "Fruit of Civilization", Czech Pavilion will highlight the concept of environment protection, like designing a simulating natural precipitation device on the outer wall of the pavilion and import the water into the inner area, displaying to the audience how to recycle the natural rain. Another good example is Czech's city construction: a large number of historic city zones have been retained and some modern architecture has been built around the periphery of the city zones. The pleasing incorporation of historic legacy and modern architecture will also be materialized in Czech Pavilion.

"Midsummer Fruit" Came out from Flood Disaster

When asked about whether Czech had brought forward Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) cases, Mr. Stehlik gave a positive answer, so we were eager to know the specific content about the cases. But he kept us guessing by first telling of a flood disaster in Czech six years ago. That's in August 2002, a flood disaster broke out in Czech and tens of thousands people had to evacuate. The flood not only polluted the country but also damaged a lot of precious buildings. Prague became the hardest-hit disaster area and the situation was very serious.

But Czechish didn't give in. In order to avoid the similar disaster, they worked out a set of emergency handling system, which was a "midsummer fruit" borne out of the flood.

"Rejoicing Fruit" Borne out of the Communication between Two Peoples

Czech's participation in Expo Shanghai will be a great help for the further development of relation between the two countries, especially it will help attract more Chinese tourists to tour around Czech which boasts thousands of years of cultural sediment. Reputed as "City of Myriad Towers" and "Center of Europe", Prague was listed in 1992 by UNESCO as World Historic and Cultural Legacy. With numerous archaic buildings especially the frescos, Prague is worthy of world-renown tourist resort. Here, the tourists can enjoy most architectural styles emerged in the European history, from baroque to cubism and from neo-classicism to post-modernism and so on.

According to Mr. Stehlik, about 15,000 Czechish came to China for business tour and sightseeing annually, and the figure is ever increasing.

He added, "In 1791, Prague held an exhibition similar to a bazaar at which there was only exhibition but without sale, and I think it had something to do with the history of World Expo. In recent years, Czech has been active in taking part in World Expo so as to display to the world our elegant demeanor. World Expo 2010 Shanghai China is No. 1 in terms of both scale and number of participants. I am in the hope that the 'Fruit of Civilization' will not only be a monumental summary in the process of human urbanization but also be a new beginning."