Editor's note: The 2010 World Expo has turned Shanghai into an international carnival. Xinhua News Agency is inviting participants and visitors to share their "postcards" from China during the Expo. Contribution can be impressions of the Expo or of Shanghai or other parts of China, as well as stories, written reflections, travelogues, comments or any other observations relating to the 2010 Expo.

Following is a contribution from Jamie Mei Cheng, a student ambassador of the United States Pavilion at the ongoing Shanghai World Expo. The 21-year-old student from Los Angeles, California, studies at the University of Southern California.

Every morning I ride the staff bus to work, and everyone on it is from a different place, speaking in different languages, and wearing different uniforms and outfits.

A man and a woman from the Pacific Islands, wearing a skirt and dress with bright flower print, hold hands as they ride silently together. A tight-knit clump of South Asian women, in bright orange dresses and sashes that drape over their shoulders and down to the floor, chatter together animatedly. A couple of gentlemen from Nigeria sit in the front rows, wearing polo shirts that say, "Federal Republic of Nigeria."

Riding the staff bus becomes routine and sometimes dull. But whenever I step back, I marvel at the rich diversity around me. Behind every person's garb are a tradition and a history, just like the people who wear them.

At the Expo, all these different cultures and heritages come together in celebration of globalization and the interconnectedness that it has brought us. As a participant of the Expo, I am learning so much about different nations and how people can work together despite language and cultural divides. I can only imagine how much the visitors of the Expo gain from this phenomenal display of the world.

Part of my job at the United States Pavilion is working in the Community Outreach Office. Besides finding different volunteer opportunities for our staff to reach out to the local Shanghai community, we also bring in local underprivileged children to visit the Expo.

Recently, we worked with a group of children from Yangguang Haichuan School, a school for children of migrant families who have come to Shanghai for work. The Expo brought to them the diversity of the entire world, when many of them had never before met or seen a foreigner. Their bright eyes soaked in everything they saw, and they eagerly answered questions we asked regarding what they felt about each pavilion. I know that when they grow up and become China's future leaders, they will remember the day they spent at the Expo.

They, and the millions of other visitors, will see the world differently after spending a day with people, like those on the staff bus, who speak in different languages and wear different clothing.

In the past 30 years, there has been much talk of China's growth. But besides the obvious economic and political advances, the diversity of the Expo and the legendary coming-together of peoples are, to me, what reflects China's newfound position amongst the world's leading nations.

No matter how rich or free, a great nation is made of citizens who have open minds and broad perspectives. I believe that the Expo is the perfect venue for China and participants alike to see a wider view of the world.

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