SHANGHAI - Barbara Boyce is the Business Development Manager with China Travel Service, the exclusive Official Expo Ticket Agent for Australia and New Zealand. She has been travelling to China for 15 years on business trips but the EXPO gave her reason to take a break from work on May 1st during the May Day holiday.  It prompted a rethink of the planned beach holiday in July and she will return to New Zealand to change her tour booking. She now plans to book a family holiday during the school break in July, adding it next business trip' s itinerary to visit the Expo as a family together to  "see the world in a day"  because the Expo is a bonus year to visit China.

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Thank you from EXPO 2010 in Shanghai!

From half the world away, it has taken me all these years to truly appreciate all you did for me to open my eyes to this great world we live in. You have created a global child, having lived in the USA, England, Hong Kong and now New Zealand. You took me to my 1st World' s Fair when I was a very small child but I remember only one thing, Michelangelo' s sculpture The Pieta.  I reminisce of my childhood that it was a monstrous statue, as I now stand dwarfed under the China Pavilion. My memories were shattered when I went to see it in Italy as an adult with great anticipation because it was so much smaller than what I had remembered. The big difference is this visit to the Expo has far surpassed my expectations and there have been no disappointments because you taught me to make the best of any situation.

My primary visit to Shanghai was for business but it has been a reawakening.  It was very special touring  the Expo Park with Martin Jia, a proud Shanghai resident and Lisa Li and Doris Dou, from China Travel Service (NZ) Ltd. because they represent the younger generation that are making China a rising nation. After all, it' s the people that are responsible for the imposing China Pavilion. It may seem daunting that I was one of the 350,000 to attend the Open Day of the Expo on May 1st .  I am sure the media reports will focus on the long lines but how could the organisers orchestrate the camaraderie of the commemorative day on so many?  I made many new friends while waiting the two hours to enter the China Pavilion; tasting local snacks and learning new Chinese words with a multitude of tuition offers while peering into my Mandarin phrase book. They praised my attempts and giggled when I taught them my wolf whistle with cupped hands.  We exchanged presents; this little boy gave me Chinese lessons and I rewarded my  'teacher'  with a New Zealand pen.  The juvenile interactions made the time seem to pass more quickly as we waited our turn but we were allowed to linger to spend as much time as we wanted once inside. Many families posed in front of the massive replica  "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival"  in the first hall with the ancient original in the next and I was captivated by the children' s artwork in the corridor that was so colorful and creative. There were millions of smiles exchanged during the day, the most effective form of communication.

I look at the many similarities of my first visit to an Expo in New York that I attended so many years ago- they also expected 70 million visitors.  Therefore, there must have been long lines but that' s not something that I recall. Now, there is an advanced booking system and you can even pre-book some pavilions on the website before you set foot in the Expo Park.  There were no computers when I went as a child but now we depend on technology to improve our daily life,  "Better City - Better Life" , the Expo theme.

I am grateful to my parents that nurtured my appreciation of art that was born from my fascination as a child with The Pieta.  It' s interesting that Michelangelo sculpted a youthful Mary though her chronological age must have been in her 50' s; so it was ironic I celebrated my birthday at Gina' s Italian Restaurant in Auckland last week feeling very young myself. Diamond is the birthstone for those born in April.  I was plucked out of the 40,000 that queued for the China Pavilion by a reporter asking my why I would wait hours to get into the China Pavilion and I blurted something about it' s architecture as the  "Oriental Crown and I was keen to see the diamonds" .  Lucky for me that my husband has been very generous with those gems over the years.  I have also come to learn that the "Bel-Gem Waffle" was introduced during my first visit many years ago by a Mr & Mrs Maurice Vermersch but the name was changed to the Belgian Waffle at the Fair.  I didn' t have time to visit the Belgian Pavilion this time, debating between there but I was lured to the Italy Pavilion.  It was poignant to finish the day by making a comparison of that visit so many years ago of the World Fair in New York, as I have matured and the world has changed.  I was not disappointed in the Italy Pavilion as I filed past the luxury cars, fashion and the Canilettos masterpiece.  I stopped in my tracks as I rounded a corner in a room surrounded by modern audio-visual images encircling Cellini' s Persus holding the head of Medusa, the famous bronze sculpture. The statue is nearly 500 years old yet contrasted by the clever man that was panning the pavilion to his parents on the other side of the world via Skype.  I plan to get an iPad  so that I will be able to do the same to show my mother a live feed during our July visit, as she is too frail to travel.

I feel somewhat guilty as I planned to delay my visit to the Italy Pavilion until I could share the experience with my family. My daughter, Nicole, loved Hans Christian Anderson stories when she was a little girl and she was overjoyed to see the iconic Little Mermaid when we took her to Copenhagen after she started to read.  She is now a teenager and we will be able to recreate that joy of literature in Shanghai at the Denmark Pavilion during the next school holiday.  It' s a case of a working mother mixing work with leisure on her next business trip to China.

There were many similarities from my first visit to an Expo as I reminisce and dream what a wonderful life we can have if all these nations that are participating can truly work together to expand on the synergy generated by their Expo participation to ensure our future generations of a  "Better City, Better Life" .  The China Pavilion will become Shanghai' s landmark but the harmony of our nations working together would truly be the pinnacle of the Oriental crown as legacy of Expo 2010 in Shanghai for future generations.