One of the major events of this year is the World Expo in Shanghai. The city’s intense and massive preparations are escalating and suggest China will once again stage an extraordinary show, no different from the Beijing Olympics.
The World Expo is an event eagerly awaited by millions of people around the globe. Each country strives to present itself in the most exciting light, to show the world what it has to offer. This year, the attention has turned to Shanghai, the host of World Expo 2010. The grand show is only months away (May 1 – Oct 31) and China is speeding up the last minute adjustments to the scene. After all, the country expects 70 million visitors to flood in between May and October, to witness how 192 countries promote their culture here.
An estimated 5% of all visitors are expected to be foreigners. However, that is still a very significant number and organizers expect approximately 500,000 hotel guests per night in Shanghai. A lot of rooms are needed and several new hotels have been built to cater for the incoming thousands. The government financed a 2.2 billion dollar makeover of the Hongqiao Airport which has opened a new terminal and is linked to the city by a metro line.
The theme which bridges all the efforts in Shanghai is “Better City, Better Life”, and many countries focus intensely on producing ‘green’ exhibitions. China’s largest solar rooftop energy system along with many wind turbines will provide power for buildings in the Expo area; over a thousand hydrogen and electricity powered cars will be available for transportation at the site. The British pavilion will produce its own power and the Swiss pavilion is to be created out of soybean fibers. The message is clear and technology will be the core of many of this year’s exhibits.
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