"Our national pavilion will showcase American business and technology as well as cultures and values to foster stronger friendship between the American and Chinese peoples, as it also demonstrates America's commitment to a forward-looking, positive relationship with China," Clinton told reporters.

It will be "a perfect opportunity to highlight U.S. innovation, particularly in environmental initiatives, and to share ideas with countries from around the world on ways to create better cities and communities for all our people," she was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

EXPO NEWS: Rose Parade

Two Chinese-American groups in Los Angeles will jointly sponsor a float to promote the 2010 World Expo Shanghai in the upcoming Rose Parade New Year celebration, it was announced in Los Angeles on June 23.

"We have secured the Shanghai Expo organizer's authorization to use its logo and mascot on our float for the 121st Rose Parade in Pasadena," Sue Zhang, President of the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations, told a press conference.

Zhang said that her group and the Shanghai Landers' Club, another local Chinese-American group, will jointly sponsor the Shanghai World Expo float, which is still being designed.

Expo Gateway Returns Home

A 97-year-old decorative gateway made in China that has appeared at three previous World Expos will return home to Shanghai, the host city of the 2010 World Expo, said Song Haojie, Deputy Director of the Xuhui District Cultural Bureau in Shanghai, on June 28.

The gateway is headed home on a ship

that left Stockholm in mid-June, said Song.

The Tujiawan gateway, which is 5.8 meters high and 5.2 meters wide, bears dragons, a mascot in Chinese culture, and lions on its four pillars.

Ten children from the Tujiawan Orphanage,

founded by Western missionaries 150 years ago, carved the monumental gateway from teak wood in 1912 under the guidance of a foreign craftsman, according to Song.

The gateway appeared at the World Expo in San Francisco in 1915, in Chicago in 1933 and in New York in 1939, before ending up in the world of collectors.

In 1986, a Swedish architect set up a foundation for its restoration. The Xuhui District Cultural Bureau and the foundation signed a transfer agreement on April 23.