Spain puts a lot of emphasis on marketing its national image through World Expos. Since 2000, when the Spanish Society for International Exhibitions was established to prepare for Expo 2000 in Hanover and was charged with promoting the nation's international exhibitions and planning and operating its pavilions, the nation's pavilions have been widely praised.

This time Spain selected hand-woven wicker panels to take the spotlight (wicker is a common material for handicrafts in both Spain and China). The pavilion hired 22 traditional wicker artisans from Shandong Province, who spent nearly half a year constructing the 8,524 hand-crafted panels, which cover a structure built from 250,000 meters of steel beam.

The wicker comes in beige, brown and black. The first is the material's original color, and the later two are the result of the wicker being steeped in the juice of willow branches and leaves for either five or nine hours. The three colors have provided some mystery to unravel: From afar you can vaguely make out the shapes of various simple Chinese characters-§E (ri-sun or day), §I (yue-moon or month), §j (da-big), and §O (you-friend).

For its exhibitions, Spain has chosen the theme of urban legacy: "From the city of our parents to the city of our children." It hired three famous Spanish directors to separately plan three large separate spaces: "Origin," "Cities" and "Children."

In "Origin" a tale slowly begins to unfold in a theater made up to resemble a cave. Bigas Luna, (the director of My Name is Juani) makes use of a large canvas that was left out exposed to the elements in his garden to serve as the screen for projecting film that is part of a multimedia work; it's all very creative. Here, not only can one enjoy the experience of traditional flamenco dancers dancing seemingly right "off the screen," but when an image of the famous "running of the bulls" in Pamplona appears, the floor shakes as if from a stampede. It's as if the audience has been deposited amid the actual frenzy of the festival.

The first room of the Spanish Pavilion is a multimedia theater with the appearance of a cave. The film screened here includes traditional flamenco dancers. The second room has five giant screens that show the process of urban transformation in Spain over the last 100 years.Baby Miguelin, 6.5 meters tall, is a mechanical doll modeled upon an eight-month-old Spanish baby. Featuring extraordinarily lifelike expressions, it offers a look at the ideals held by the young for the future of cities.

The film Cities unfolds to the tune of Master Peter's Puppet Show by Manuel de Falla. In this theater formed by five giant screens, a short film created from a melange of old photographs, documents and precious film clips provides a record of urban Spain-beginning early last century with the migration from farm to city, through the convulsions of civil war, on to the rebuilding process afterwards, until finally arriving at the contemporary Spanish city of today.

"Through this process that Spain has gone through, we hope to give China, which is in the process of developing, experience that it can refer to in the future planning of its cities," says Yang Yue, the pavilion's officer for communications, culture and programs.

The final space-"Children"-contains the Spanish Pavilion's secret weapon: a 6.5-meter-tall "Baby Miguelin." This extremely cute giant mechanical baby was based on an eight-month-old actual Spanish baby. The director responsible for this room-Isabel Coixet (director of Map the Sounds of Tokyo)-twice held tryouts in Barcelona, picking Miguelin from among 40 babies in the age range of eight months to a year. Miguelin is known for being very agreeable and for loving to laugh.

This loveable Baby Miguelin not only "melts people's hearts" with his smile, but he also blinks, breaths and says "hola" to welcome visitors. The baby is surrounded by six giant bubbles which represent his dreams about the city of the future, a place where every child will receive education, and every citizen will enjoy reasonably priced health care.

This third exhibition area, which is brimming with happy laughter about a beautiful future, also gives visitors the happiest of exhibition-going experiences.

The first room of the Spanish Pavilion is a multimedia theater with the appearance of a cave. The film screened here includes traditional flamenco dancers. The second room has five giant screens that show the process of urban transformation in Spain over the last 100 years.Baby Miguelin, 6.5 meters tall, is a mechanical doll modeled upon an eight-month-old Spanish baby. Featuring extraordinarily lifelike expressions, it offers a look at the ideals held by the young for the future of cities.

The first room of the Spanish Pavilion is a multimedia theater with the appearance of a cave. The film screened here includes traditional flamenco dancers. The second room has five giant screens that show the process of urban transformation in Spain over the last 100 years.Baby Miguelin, 6.5 meters tall, is a mechanical doll modeled upon an eight-month-old Spanish baby. Featuring extraordinarily lifelike expressions, it offers a look at the ideals held by the young for the future of cities.