World Expo 2010 prepares to open in Shanghai

Shanghai - The official opening of the Shanghai World Exposition 2010 takes place Friday as China prepares to host what it is predicting would be the most well-attended world expo ever.

More than 20 heads of state and government were in Shanghai to attend the fireworks, concerts and indoor show to mark the Expo's launch before it opens its doors to the public Saturday.

Around 200 countries and 50 organizations have built pavilions on the 5-square-kilometer site straddling the Huangpu River to welcome the estimated 70 million visitors expected to visit the expo over the course of its six-month run.

This year's expo is focused on the challenges of urbanization under the motto "Better City, Better Life." Shanghai's 18 million inhabitants put it among the 10 largest cities on Earth.

World expositions, initially known as universal expositions, have been held two or three times a decade since the first one in 1851 in London's Hyde Park.

The Shanghai Expo's website described the event as "the Olympic Games of the economy, science and technology."

With pavilions costing tens of millions of dollars, exhibitors seek to gain returns by encouraging tourism and other investments.

The expo experienced some teething problems during its trial opening over the week before the official inauguration with long crowds forming at security checkpoints and pavilions.

The organizers maintained that the problems have been solved in time for the official launch.

"Shanghai is ready," exposition spokesman Xu Wei said Monday, adding, "The whole city has been mobilized."

Claims of plagiarism have been leveled against the expo's promotional song, the Chinese pavilion's architecture and the design of the cartoon mascot figure.

Expo authorities have defended the originality of the Chinese pavilion and the blue mascot Haibao. They have also approached the Japanese singer of a 1997 pop hit, said to resemble the expo's song, for permission to perform the tune.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/321334,world-expo-2010-prepares-to-open-in-shanghai.html.