April 26 witnessed six trial operations at the World Expo Park. Xi'an Daming Palace Pavilion received about 15, 000 visitors.

The result was not bad, considering that the World Expo Park was exclusively opened to the central leaders on April 22. Turnout was especially good on April 25, when Xi’an Daming Palace Pavilion received more than 5,000 visitors, forcing a cyclorama movie at one time to halt. With an estimated 400,000 visitors in the park, Xi'an Daming Palace Pavilion received a visitor volume 2.5 times the average reception of more than 200 pavilions (including pavilions within the pavilions) in the park.

Xi'an Daming Palace is a charming pavilion. Not to mention the majestic cyclorama movie or the lithe and graceful Tang-style music and dancing, the merest sight of those classic and graceful Tang-styles architecture is enough to make Shanghai, a city that flooded with modern architecture yet lacking profound historical culture, full of admiration.

As the only important relic of World Expo with typical Chinese elements, Xi'an Daming Palace Pavilion is an alternative for those who cannot enter the Chinese Pavilion. Especially for foreigners, one can hardly imagine how satisfying and tempting it is by sitting in the pavilion, which used to specifically serve emperors, holding a wine glass amid the wind and indulging yourself in the music and dancing of the Tang Dynasty.

The curator of Cisco, which invested 20 million U.S. dollars to the pavilion, came to me personally, expecting some special privileges for himself as an honored guest of the Daming Palace Pavilion in the name of one of the world's 500 giant chambers. Certainly he would be much happier to dress in a Tang suit and receive gifts.

To this end, I led my fellow librarians with VIP status to experience a journey of modern lifestyles by shying away from the hundreds of people lining up outside Cisco Museum.

Undoubtedly, this is a victory for the charming Daming Palace, and it is the beginning of its complete victory in this international arena, the World Expo.

For the same reason, the curators of the Hamburg Pavilion, Germany, France Pavilion and Alsace Pavilion came to find me too. I know that the door leading to the world has been opened precisely because of Tang culture, the Daming Palace, as well as the Chinese red.

By Liu Lei