The Chinese, who saw the fair as an opportunity to establish a cultural dialogue with the world, offer a portion of the Great Wall of China, along with scores of soapstone and jade carvings, modern and antique porcelain, rattan and silk goods, furniture, and tapestries woven with pearls.

The pavilion did not neglect energy entirely, however; in addition to the solar boat, it offered a display on the collection of marsh gas for conversion into propane gas. The fair's biggest hit, China's pavilion had crowds waiting up to three hours.

China's participation in a world's fair for the first time since 1904 produced a dramatic exhibit that grew out of difficult negotiations that came within a breath of failure.

Visitors to the China pavilion at the World's Fair seemed unanimously fascinated with the artifacts and handicrafts, the hundreds of elaborate carvings in jade and ivory, the hand-painted porcelain, the tapestries and silks and carpets.

In the views both of the Chinese and world's fair officials, it was just that fascination that placed paramount importance on China's participation in the 1982 international exposition.

The pavilion is easily the most heavily visited one at the fair. The Chinese estimate that at least half of the quarter-million people who turned out for the first four days of the fair went through the China pavilion.