BEIJING, Sept. 17 -- World Expo Shanghai organizers want Chinese people everywhere in the world to contribute to the Expo showcase for the country, the China Pavilion.

At the end of this year Chinese people both at home and abroad will be able to make donations to the China Pavilion, the organizers announced on Saturday at the 9th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in Kobe, Japan.

"The Chinese government will provide most of the money needed to build the pavilion, but at the same time we want donations from Chinese people," Shanghai Vice Mayor Yang Xiong said at the conference.

The donations can only legally be given to the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

The donations can be of one yuan, one HK dollar, one U.S. dollar or a euro. The bureau will regularly announce how much has been collected and how the money is being used.

The China Pavilion, located on a prime site in the Pudong side of the Expo area, will be designed by Chinese architects and will be a permanent fixture.

Since the tenders for the pavilion were called on April 25, the organizers have received more than 300 designs which are now being reviewed by the jury.

The China Pavilion will have a floor area of 20,000 square meters and its theme will be "Chinese wisdom during urban development."

Construction of the pavilion will start in November and will take two years to be completed.

More than 3,600 overseas Chinese businessmen attended the promotional meeting for World Expo Shanghai 2010 in Kobe on Saturday. Yang urged the businessmen to take part in Expo's marketing to share the Expo experience.

Distinguished scientist Chenning Yang led hundreds of guests in autographing a special board at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the touring World Expo exhibition opened at the Nanjing Library in Jiangsu Province yesterday after successfully concluding its Shanghai showing.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)