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Chile celebrates National Pavilion Day
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When most of China goes to sleep, Chile is only just waking up, ten thousand miles away in South America.
But visitors who don't want to travel all that way can see the wonders of the country as it celebrates National Pavilion Day at the Shanghai World Expo.
Wearing traditional attire, Chilean dancers present a selection of folk songs and dances on the expo stage. The design of the Chile Pavilion resembles an undulating "crystal cup" with irregular wave-like fluctuations. It also conjures up an abstract image of ships at sea. The main structure is made of steel and glass, the same color as copper.
Held in the "crystal cup" is a Chilean dream of about future cities. Its five exhibition halls focus on how to build a better city and to improve people's standard of living.
A country occupying a ribbon of land 4,300 kilometers long and on average 175 kilometers wide, Chile's northern desert contains great mineral wealth, mainly copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and pasture and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas and islands.
Chile was the first South American country to establish diplomatic ties with China.
Chile is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations, with a population which loves to read. The country has close to two thousand libraries with more than 17,000 volumes of books. Its capital, Santiago has 25 museums. And in 1945, Gabriela Mistral became the first Chilean to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. The Easter Island, located in the southeast Pacific Ocean, has six hundred standing stone sculptures and was listed as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage Site in 1996.
Visitors to the Chile Pavilion can engage themselves in a Cuenca dance with the staff and then enjoy a Chile Pie and Pisco Sour, a cocktail containing pisco, lemon, or lime juice, egg whites, syrup, and bitters.
