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CHINA
AWARDED FIRST EVER WORLD LEISURE EXPO AND 9TH WORLD
LEISURE CONGRESS FOR JUNE 2006CHINA AWARDED FIRST
EVER WORLD LEISURE EXPO AND 9TH WORLD LEISURE CONGRESS
FOR JUNE 2006. |
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 The
World Leisure Board of Directors has awarded the
first ever World Leisure EXPO to
the city of Hangzhou, China together
with the 9th World Leisure Congress.
A Memorandum of Agreement was signed on November
9, 2002 in Hangzhou by representatives of World
Leisure, the City of Hangzhou, and the Song Dynasty
Town Group. It details the nature of the 6-month
event and the co-operative arrangements between
World Leisure and the EXPO Organising Committee.
The Event: The World Leisure EXPO will be
a six-month world exposition from mid-May to mid-October,
2006, and will be comprised of a series of exhibitions,
special events, conferences, trade shows, and training
programs. The overall purpose of the event is to
promote leisure as a means for improving the quality
of life for all. More particularly, EXPO 2006 is
designed to exchange and disseminate current ideas
from all parts of the world, and to showcase the
latest and best examples of innovative programming,
facilities and equipment. Considerable emphasis
will be given to the role of leisure in sustainable
economic development, with special attention to
developing countries. At the same time, the EXPO
is intended to contribute further to the stature
and prestige of Hangzhou as an exemplar of a contemporary
international city, which in turn will reflect the
new China of the 21st century.
The
Location: Hangzhou is a city of 4 million
people located 180 kms from Shanghai, a two hour
drive via freeway. With outstanding new
international airports in Shanghai and Hangzhou
itself, access is convenient from all parts of the
world. The City has long been regarded as among
the most desirable travel and tourism destinations
in China. As one of China's seven ancient capitals,
it is historically and culturally special. Its modern
facilities and scenic attractiveness brought 22.5
million visitors in 2000. The 2006 Hangzhou event
will be an important lead-up to the Beijing Olympics
in 2008 and the 2010 World Exposition just awarded
to Shanghai. Hangzhou [add web link to Hangzhou].
The Role of World Leisure: The Memorandum
of Agreement assigns special advisory, administrative
and promotional roles to World Leisure. In addition
to the 9th World Leisure Congress scheduled for
June, 2006, World Leisure will make special program
contributions to EXPO including an Executive Development
Program, other training and educational programs,
and a program of research. To facilitate this collaboration,
the Association will have representation on both
the EXPO Organising Committee and the Executive
Committee. The agreement also makes provision for
financing the work of World Leisure, including the
appointment of a senior officer to co-ordinate the
implementation of World Leisure roles and responsibilities.
In addition, the 8th and 10th World Leisure Congresses
to be held in Brisbane, Australia (2004) and Québec
City, Canada (2008) respectively will be closely
integrated with EXPO 2006.
The
Site: The City of Hangzhou and surrounding
communities are blessed with an infrastructure conducive
to convening large scale events. Most of the 2006
EXPO activities will take place at the World Leisure
EXPO Gardens now under construction at a cost of
more than US$ 500 million.
World Leisure EXPO 2006 will be the first ever event
of this kind and scope, and as such promises to
provide a raised profile and broadened interest
in leisure in all of its aspects, up to, during,
and after the event. Discussions have already begun
on the important subject of the long-term legacy
of the event.
To keep World Leisure members and other interested
persons informed, work has begun on the preparation
of a special web site devoted to EXPO 2006, as well
as augmented pages on the existing World Leisure
site (worldleisure.org) |
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Other
Chinese Leisure Initiatives
Centre for Leisure Study
Institute of Chinese Culture
Beijing
http://www.chineseleisure.org
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