关于el表达式

求问，下面的代码如何优化，我对el表达式实在不熟，求高手指点一二

---

基于邢爱明童鞋的解决方法，后来我跟后台程序员研究出一种比较简单的写法，虽然我不清楚性能上有什么区别0.0.。。。

 java.util.List cities = new java.util.ArrayList();
  String[] a = {"北京","上海","深圳","广州","杭州","成都","南京","武汉","西安","厦门","长沙","苏州","天津","重庆","郑州",
                "青岛","合肥","福州","济南","大连","珠海","无锡","东莞","宁波","常州","沈阳","石家庄","昆明","南昌","南宁",
                "哈尔滨","海口","中山","惠州","贵阳","长春","太原","嘉兴","泰安","昆山","烟台","兰州","泉州"};
  cities.addAll(Arrays.asList(a));
  pageContext.setAttribute("cities", cities);

---

把所有城市放到一个List里面，用循环替代一坨子的<li>...</li>语句，下面是一个例子：

<%
    java.util.List cities = new java.util.ArrayList();
    cities.add("全国");
    cities.add("北京");
    cities.add("上海");
    cities.add("广州");
    cities.add("重庆");
    pageContext.setAttribute("cities", cities);

    pageContext.setAttribute("searchCity", null);
%>
<c:forEach items="${cities}" var="city">
    <p class='<c:if test="${(searchCity == null and city == '全国') or (searchCity == city)}">red</c:if>'>${city}</p>
</c:forEach>