China

China National Pavilion

Location	Place of Nations
No. of Buildings	1
Construction
Construction Cost	$135,0000 ($40.7 million in 2021)

China's National Pavilion entry was a reproduction of 29 year-old Prince Pu Lun's summer palace. The building stood on Administration Avenue, between the Belgium pavilion and Great Britain's buildings.

Description

The framework was constructed by American craftsmen, but the delicate carving of the ornamental finish which included ebony and ivory, was fashioned by the skilled hands of Chinese artisans. The pavilion included four buildings surrounded partially by a stone wall. A pagoda, rose garden and goldfish pool was housed inside a center courtyard. The pagoda attracted attention because of its varicolored and odd-shaped decorations.

This was the first Exposition that China had officially participated in.

Inside, the woodwork was all created by hand, 6,000 pieces in all; showed some fine examples of scroll sawing, wood carving, pyrography* and inlaying with ebony and ivory.

Predominate colors include: scarlet, gold, ebony and blue. The pavilion contained some handsome Chinese furniture and porcelains.

Prince Pu Lun was the country's official commissioner for the Fair and lived inside the China pavilion during the Fair's length. His bed was created from ebony and mother-of-pearl.

On May 6, Pu Lun held a reception at the Washington Hotel to more than 1.400 guests to mark the Chinese dedication day to the Fair.

• Pyrography is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated object such as a poker. The word means "writing with fire" and is the traditional art of using a heated tip or wire to burn or scorch designs onto natural materials such as wood or leather.

After the Fair

After the Fair's closing, on December 29th, Wong Kai Kah, the Imperial Vice Commissioner General from China to the World's Fair, gave the entire pavilion to Fair President David R. Francis.