The Shanghai World Expo ended Sunday night to a festive gala of singing and dancing. While thousands of officials, organizers, staff and volunteers attended the ceremony, still more remained outside the Expo Cultural Center running operations around the park and hosting their pavilion's own closing ceremonies.

Though none were as grand, the individual pavilions' closing events were a mixture of formal, exclusive parties and festive celebrations that drew in unsuspecting passers-by. Singapore Pavilion put up a golden wish tree on Saturday so visitors could fill out small cards with their hopes, thoughts and prayers to hang on the tree as they exited.

"To Singapore Pavilion, hope you had great success at Shanghai Expo," reads one card.

Canada Pavilion held a flag-lowering ceremony at sunset. With two Mounties flanking the flagpole outside the pavilion, Mark "Da Shan" Roswell, the commissioner general of the pavilion, gave a short speech. A popular staff member sang "O Canada," the national anthem, as the flag was lowered, to a crowd of hundreds waving small Canadian flags.

The Canada Pavilion holds its closing ceremony. [Shanghai Daily]

"It was just something fun for us to do," said Jennifer Price, the communications director for Canada Pavilion.

Chile and Taiwan pavilions held more formal closings. Chile Pavilion held a classy, exclusive party with Chilean wine and food for staff and organizers in the pavilion. Commissioner General Hernan Somerville showed off the Gold Expo Award that Chile Pavilion won the night before for theme development, beating 21 other Type B pavilions.

Finally, at the end of the night, Taiwan held a small ceremony in the square outside its pavilion. As staff, organizers and a small crowd of visitors watched, Taiwan Pavilion Chairman Wang Chih-kang turned off the lights of the pavilion at about a quarter to 11.

Emotions were running high throughout all the closing ceremonies. Staff members frequently embraced, giddy over the final moments of a successful run, proud of their accomplishments as a team, and sad that it all had to end. For many pavilion workers, most of who are Chinese and received extensive training before the expo, working at the expo was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"I am very thankful for this opportunity," said Wang Xiao, a staff worker at Canada Pavilion who was born and raised in Shanghai but now lives in Canada. "I had the privilege to work with an amazing Canada team. Everyone was really, really fantastic and very, very devotional."

The bond between workers, who worked long shifts for most of the past 184 days, and the friendships they formed became clearly (sometimes painfully) evident as the night wound down. At the Taiwan Pavilion, some staffers were sniffling throughout the closing ceremony, and as the event ended, more tears were shed.

"Unforgettable," said Milo, a Chile Pavilion staff member, of the expo. "I will miss it. It was a very precious experience in my life."

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Xu Lin contributed reporting for this article.