China Pavilion
| China Pavilion | |
|---|---|
| Park | EPCOT |
| Land / area | World Showcase |
| Type | Pavilion |
| Opened | October 1, 1982
|
| Status | Operating |
The China Pavilion is a pavilion in World Showcase at EPCOT at Walt Disney World, Florida, located between the Norway Pavilion and the Germany Pavilion. One of the nine original World Showcase pavilions, it opened on October 1, 1982. Visitors enter beneath a ceremonial gate into landscaped grounds centred on a half-scale reproduction of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which houses the pavilion's Circle-Vision 360 film.
The pavilion was developed in a period when diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China were newly open, and its film presentation was produced with access to locations across China that few Western film crews of the time had been granted. That access has shaped the pavilion ever since: its attraction has always been a travel film rather than a ride, and its gallery and gardens carry as much of the presentation as its buildings.
Design
Entry is through the Gate of the Golden Sun, a paifang modelled on a gate of the Summer Palace in Beijing. Beyond it, paths cross a lotus pond by way of small bridges and lead to the pavilion's dominant building, a reproduction, at roughly half scale, of the Temple of Heaven — specifically its circular Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, first built in the fifteenth century. The blue-tiled, triple-eaved roof is carried inside by painted columns whose decoration is symbolic: the four central pillars represent the seasons, ringed by columns for the months and the traditional divisions of the day.
Behind the temple, the pavilion continues as the Street of Good Fortune, a shopping street of tiled roofs and red columns that leads to the House of Good Fortune, one of the largest shops in World Showcase. Gardens of bamboo, mulberry and water plants fill the spaces between buildings and are among the most carefully maintained planting in World Showcase.
Attractions
Reflections of China is a Circle-Vision 360 film of about fourteen minutes, shown in a theatre inside the Temple of Heaven where the audience stands and turns to follow the action across nine screens. Narrated by an actor in the persona of the Tang-dynasty poet Li Bai, it tours the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze, the karst scenery around Guilin, the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia and the modern skylines of Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The film opened with the pavilion in 1982 as Wonders of China, one of the first Western productions filmed extensively inside China after the country's opening to the West. It was replaced in 2003 by the current version, which re-shot much of the journey with a new script and presenter. A further successor, Wondrous China, was announced in 2019 as part of EPCOT's transformation; it had not replaced Reflections of China as of the mid-2020s.
The House of the Whispering Willows gallery, in the temple complex, presents rotating exhibitions. Its best-known long-term display, Tomb Warriors (from 2011), showed guardian figures and artefacts associated with China's imperial tombs, including terracotta figures in the tradition of the Terracotta Army. Street entertainment has included the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats.
Dining
Nine Dragons Restaurant is the pavilion's table-service restaurant, serving dishes drawn from several Chinese regional cuisines in a dining room of carved wood and lanterns; it underwent a substantial refurbishment in 2008. Lotus Blossom Café provides quick-service Chinese food, and the Joy of Tea kiosk on the lagoon promenade sells teas, iced drinks and snacks.