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/* History */
Throughout the initial development of World Showcase, two communist countries were interested in sponsoring their own pavilion- the Soviet Union and China <ref name= "jack"> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2012/02/china_pavilion_part_one_1.html </ref>. Unlike the USSR, which wanted to integrate the ideals of communism into their pavilion, China was willing to showcase its history and culture without involving ideology <ref name= "jack"/>. Despite this, Disney did not originally plan on having China be in an opening day pavilion <ref name= "Martin2"> http://www.martinsvids.net/?p=966 </ref>. Instead, the plot of land that would eventually hold the China pavilion was occupied at various times by a [[Scandinavian Showcase]] pavilion, a Costa Rica pavilion, or even left empty <ref name= "Martin2"/>. By 1979, Imagineers planned on constructing a [[Morocco]] pavilion on the plot<ref name= "Martin2"/>. As these plans were pushed to the back-burner however, China was pushed to the forefront and would now be built in time for [[EPCOT Center]]'s opening day.
In order to help showcase the diversity of China, plans for the pavilion called for a CircleVision 360 film called [[Wonders of China]] to be filmed. To create the movie, Disney entered negotiations with Chinese government over where they could and could not film <ref name= "Spence2"> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2012/02/china_pavilion_part_two.html </ref> Although Disney, and director Jeff Blythe, were initially given tight filming restrictions, the company and China eventually came to an agreement where Chinese film crews would film the country's more “sensitive” areas, where the government did not want westerners to go (such as Tibet and the Great Wall) <ref name= "Spence2"/>. [[Image:Chinapavilionconcept.jpg|400px|thumb|Concept art for the China pavilion.]]
The China pavilion opened with the rest of World Showcase on October 1, 1982. When the pavilion opened it featured the aforementioned CircleVision attraction [[Wonders of China]], as well as two shops, various gardens and the Whispering Willows gallery, which would eventually house authentic Chinese artifacts. The center piece of the China pavilion is a replica of the Hall of Prayer and Good Harvests, which is part of the Temple of Heaven complex located southeast of central Beijing. The replica found in the pavilion was built at ½ scale and designed so that guests must enter the Hall before seeing Wonders of China.
The first major addition to the China pavilion came in 1983 when the Yong Feng Shangdian (Bountiful Harvest) store opened <ref> https://d23.com/a-to-z/yong-feng-shangdian </ref>. The following April, the House of the Whispering Willows gallery got over fifty artifacts from the Republic of China's Palace Museum <ref> http://www.mainstgazette.com/2012/04/treasures-of-forbidden-city.html </ref>. Throughout the pavilion's history, the contents housed within the gallery have changed.
