Up to 26 UBPA pavilion directors called on Expo 2010's Urban Best Practices Areas to form an alliance of these cities yesterday during a salon at Hangzhou's Xixi National Wetland Park.
The get-together of pavilion directors was aimed to improve communications, exchanges and cooperation between UBPA cities.
The 26 directors signed a West Lake Initiative to form a UBPA city alliance during the closing season of the 184-day event to better know each other, learn from each other and cooperate together. The initiative also included organizing salon activities and sharing experiences of urban construction and development between these cities.
Directors also shared experiences about waste water disposal, urban reconstruction and new urban area construction during this salon.
Those who exchanged views included UBPA pavilions such as Turkey's Izmir Pavilion, Japan's Osaka Pavilion, Italy's Venice Pavilion, France's Alsace Pavilion, Swiss Geneva/Zurich/Basel Pavilion, China's Xi'an Daming Palace Pavilion, Britain's London Pavilion and Germany Bremen Pavilion.
During this salon, directors and other guests toured places in Hangzhou such as the West Lake, Hangzhou City Planning Exhibition Hall, Qianjiang New Town, China Grand Canal Museum and Hangzhou's Xixi National Wetland Park. They also watched a show called "Impressionist West Lake."
The salon was organized by the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and Hangzhou Municipal Government.
