World Expo Brings Joy and Cross-Culture Experience to Children

To mark International Children's Day today, the Shanghai World Expo is wowing children from across the world by playing host to various cross-culture activities. Zhao Yang takes a closer look.

Singing along with an African comedian, scores of Chinese children are celebrating an unforgettable festival in the joint Africa Pavilion.

"I feel I'm having far more fun on this children's day than previous ones. I've learned that Africa has a lot of cute animals. I also love African dancing and songs."

"It's very funny! I've got a mascot of Haibao and a book on Africa as gifts. When I grow up, I will go to Africa to see lions and Lulu there."

Lulu is the Chinese name of the African comedian Orou-Yerima Baudouin Euloge.

The comedian says he tries to offer a unique cultural experience to Chinese children through dynamic African dance and music.

"Africa and China enjoy good relations. But Africa is still a mysterious land to many people. So I want to present the real Africa face-to-face to Chinese kids in an effort to further our understanding and friendship."

Meanwhile, in the Russia Pavilion, a dozen Chinese students joined their Russian counterparts to spend part of their Children's Day drawing pictures together.

I met 13-year old Zhuang Lingeng, who had just finished a painting with his Russian artistic partner Tamerlan.

"By 2030, the world will face a worsening situation when it comes to energy shortages. So I think a future city should make more use of solar power. From this painting, you can see that the buildings are surrounded by branches, because I think that human beings should live in harmony with nature."

Tamerlan also echos his co-painters thoughts on the future of our cities.

"My utmost wish is that a future city can be free of air pollution, which has constantly harmed the environment and our health."

The two boys say that they believe that cities in the future should be clean, safe, prosperous and attractive to children, and should reflect the Shanghai Expo's motto of "better city, better life"!

For CRI, I'm Zhao Yang.