Expo 2010 Shanghai Ready to Open to Public

Expo 2010 Shanghai China begins on May 1 and runs until October 31 and it has been made possible with the help of 189 countries and 57 international organizations. The theme of the expo is “Better City – Better Life,” and more than 70 million visitors are expected to attend the traditional fair. That number could even climb to over 100 million, making it the largest worldwide.

Expo 2010 is the most expensive of all the world’s fairs and the largest at 5.28 square km. The gigantic event is being held in the center of Shanghai at the Nanpu Bridge-Lupu Bridge region. It took years of massive preparation to get the city ready for the Expo.

Pictured above, visitors lined up to see a sneak peek of the Expo on April 21, organized by the Organizing Authority. Countries from all over the world have been preparing for the popular event and the interest is huge.

Expo 2010 is holding their official opening ceremonies tonight, April 30, and the presidents of many countries will be in attendance. Other officials, speakers, deputy heads and ministers will be attending the opening events as well as attending the private reception hosted by Chinese president Hu Jintao.

The Expo has events set up in five main theme pavilions – Urban Footprints, Urban Dreams, Urban Beings, Urban Dwellers and Urban Planet. All focus on different features of metropolitan growth.

Pictured above is the completed construction of one of the many buildings on the event’s grounds. Below is another of the building sites, not having reached completion yet. As you can imagine, the buildings are massive because of all of the amazing events and visitors that will be attending.

The Urban Planet Pavillion
Inside Urban Planet there are exhibits featuring forms of creative expression. Ideas for the expositions were influenced by the Chinese Feng Shui movement. The first part of the expo is called, “Road of Crisis,” and is made up of five chapters, which coincide with the five elements in Wu Xing. They are water, fire, Earth, Metal and Wood. It focuses on the potential damage (and current) coming from cities, the decrease in our Earth’s natural resources that we so badly need and dangers that our ecosystem faces. What are they trying to say with this? They want to know how people want to live in the future.

Inside the Urban Planet Pavillion.

Urban Footprints Pavillion
The Shanghai Museum was responsible for donating the idea and approach for this particular exhibit. This showcases the development in cities and how that will affect human advancement in the future. There are three rooms in the Urban Footprints Pavilion – “City Origins,” “City Wisdom,” and “Urban Development.” The concept for this pavilion is, “an inspiration for the urban development in the future.”

Urban Beings Pavilion
Two large companies, the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Land Design Studio in London came together to form the idea for this exhibit. Urban Beings is on the advancement of infrastructure in cities and focuses on factors such as traffic, energy supply and water. Visitors can expect to see train models, underground blueprints and features a large theater where movie clips will be showing.

Urban Dwellers Pavilion
Dutch designer Herman Kossmann was responsible for the concept in the Urban Dwellers Pavilion. Modern city residents are the focus for this exhibit and video clips detail the stories of six normal family’s lives. Continents represented are Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America.

Urban Dreams Pavilion
An old power plant from the 20th century was refurbished and used for this unique exhibit. Chinese artist Bu Hua teamed up with Spanish agency Ingeniaqued to come up with the concept for this pavilion. It focuses on the future of travel and touches on issues such as traffic and improved city planning and includes an animated movie.

Other events featured throughout the five month-long expo include 900 parades, art festivals and martial arts shows.

Over 180 countries will be showcased at the Expo. Each will either be featured in a tent on its own or inside one of the large exhibition halls. The three largest exhibits are the Africa Pavilion, the China Pavilion and the Pacific Pavilion.

Australia will definitely be noticed, with their bright-red pavilion. Brunei’s pavilion will include a theme of, “Now for the Future.” Canada was the first country to officially join the team for Expo 2010 and the theme will be, “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative.” China will hold the title for largest exhibit at the Expo. Denmark’s focus is on climate and energy solutions and their centerpiece revolves around ‘The Little Mermaid.”

Hong Kong will focus on greener living and even feature a indoor recreation of the Wetland Park. India’s theme is “Unity in Diversity,” and their focus is on the interaction between urban and rural areas and their exchanging of goods and services. Israel focuses largely on ancient Jewish culture and features an orchard and films on many relevant topics.

There are many more countries represented and seeing the event in person is undoubtedly the best way to engage in all of the innovative and creative ideas and plans for the future. Visit Expo 2010 for ticket prices, show times and specific events. We’ll continue to cover the awesomeness as it unfolds.

[Source: Expo 2010 & Historical World Fairs]