The doors closed on the China Pavilion (Shìbó Zhōngguó Guǎn, 世博中国馆) on October 31, 2010 marking an end to the Shanghai Expo after 184 days. Days that sometimes stretched almost 13 hours long and racked up some 10 million visitors in total. The pavilion is now set to reopen as the China Art Palace in 2012.

Two years in the making, during the Expo the China pavilion was a showcase for the spirit of tradition Chinese culture. The exhibitions in the three-story structure were divided into three sections—"Footprint of the East," "Journey of Wisdom" and "Blossoming City.

Visitors first saw Golden Horse Best Picture ("Kekexili: Mountain Patrol") awardee Lu Chuan's 10-minute film about the last 30 years of urban development in China.

Next, visitors were treated to a massive projection of the painting "Along the River During Qingming Festival," a Chinese national treasure. Now located in the Commemoration Exhibition of Expo 2010 Shanghai China, the projection used multimedia technologies to bring more than 1,500 characters in the painting to life.

The pavilion's roof is made of 56 traditional wooden brackets symbolizing the nation's 56 minority groups. Just below the main structure, visitors to the pavilion were able to move on to a large joint pavilion housing displays from China's many provinces, cities and regions.

The China Pavilion is one of five structures that will outlive the Expo, the others being the Culture Center, the Theme Pavilion, the Expo Center and the Expo Boulevard.

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