A "super rice" hybrid will be the central exhibit of the China Pavilion at the World Expo 2015 in Milan, officials said yesterday.

The China Pavilion will be the second largest at the Expo Milan, which has agriculture and food as its theme.

It will cover some 4,500 square meters, second in size only to the 4,900-square-meter Germany Pavilion, said Wang Jinzhen, vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

"This hybrid rice has contributed a lot to feeding not only Chinese people but also people in southeast Asia and Africa," Wang told a press conference in Shanghai yesterday.

Quality and security

Other exhibits will include Chinese tea and traditional foods, he added.

With the theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life," Expo 2015 will mainly focus on innovations to ensure food quality and security, plus high-quality nutrition.

The food theme is both a challenge and opportunity for China, Wang said.

Some 30 million visitors are expected to visit Expo Milan, less than a third of the number who attended the Expo Shanghai in 2010.

The "super rice," one of the most productive in the world, was developed by Chinese scientist Yuan Longping.

It has an average output capacity of 800 kilograms per hectare, nearly double that of standard hybrid varieties.

China confirmed its participation in World Expo Milan in 2010 - the first country to do so.

The Expo Milan site will cover 1.7 square kilometers, compared to Shanghai's 5.28 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, a free retrospective exhibition about the Expo 2012 Yeosu in South Korea opened yesterday at the former Puxi World Expo Shanghai site.

The exhibition, which runs at the Expo Memorial Exhibition through August 31, features over 250 exhibits collected from the Expo 2012.

Highlighted exhibits include a Tunisian mosaic, "The God of the Sea," and a centerpiece of the Spain Pavilion - bottles with water from different oceans.

Just over 8 million people visited the Yeosu Expo, a three-month event on the theme "The Living Ocean and Coast."

A total of 104 countries and 10 international organizations participated.

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