All eyes on World Expo 2010 Shanghai China

It is about 2 years after China successfully organized the Olympics 2008 in Beijing, now all the eyes are attracted to China again with another worldwide event - Expo 2010 Shanghai China (中国2010年上海世界博览会).

With the theme of "Better City – Better Life", this Expo officially started today 1 May 2010, and will continue on for half a year until 31 October 2010. The venue is on both banks of the Huangpu River (黄浦江) in the city of Shanghai, covering a waterfront area of 5.28 kilometer square.

This Expo has made (or targetted to make) several world records, including:

• The 1st Expo held in a developing country.
• The largest world's fair site ever at 5.28 kilometer square.
• The most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs.
• The most participated Expo from 192 countries and 50 international organizations.
• Targetted for the largest crowd of visitors of more than 70 million people.
• The Expo Axis is the world largest membrane construction with a surface of 65,000 meter square in total.

There are 5 zones (from A to E) and 5 themed pavillions in Expo 2010, namely:

• Urbanian Pavilion
• Pavilion of City Being
• Pavilion of Urban Planet
• Pavilion of Footprint
• Pavilion of Future

The Expo logo is a Chinese character "世" (means "World") modified to projects the image of 3 people -- you, me and him/her -- throwing arms around each other.

The mascot of this Expo is named as HaiBao (海宝), which means the treasure of the sea. It is created from the Chinese character "人" which means "people".

To recap, the 1st Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, Great Britain in 1851. Since then, this Expo has been taken place from city to city around the world, and has evolved through 3 distinguish eras:

• Industrialization (1851–1938) - focused on trade and famous for the display of technological inventions and advancements.
• Cultural exchange (1939–1987) - based on a specific theme of cultural significance, and began to address issues of humankind.
• Nation branding (1988–present) - used by countries as a platform to improve their national images through their pavilions.