Expo 2010, officially Expo 2010 Shanghai China (simplified Chinese: 中国2010年上海世界博览会; pinyin: Zhōngguó Èrlíngyīlíng Nián Shànghǎi Shìjìe Bólǎnhuì) was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in the city of Shanghai, China, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. It was a major World Expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions, the first since 1992. The theme of the exposition was "Better City – Better Life" and signifies Shanghai's new status in the 21st century as the "next great world city".[1] The Expo emblem features the Chinese character 世 ('world', Chinese "shì") modified to represent three people together with the 2010 date. It had the largest number of countries participating and was the most expensive Expo in the history of the world's fairs. The Shanghai World Expo was also the largest World's Fair site ever at 5.28 square km.
By the end of the expo, over 73 million people had visited, a record attendance and 250 countries and international organizations had participated. On October 16, 2010, the expo set a single-day record of having over 1.03 million visitors enter the exhibition that day.
History
Early participation and hosting
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| Liang Qichao, one of the many scholars to write about the possibility of hosting an expo |
Selection process
Shanghai scored the highest in each of the four rounds of voting at the 132nd Meeting of the International Exhibitions Bureau in Prince's Palace of Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco, with Yeosu, South Korea maintaining second place. Yeosu later won the bid to host Expo 2012, a three-month specialized world expo.| 132nd Meeting of the International Exhibitions Bureau December 3, 2002, in Prince's Palace of Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco | |||||
| City | Nation | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 |
| Shanghai |  China | 36 | 38 | 44 | 54 |
| Yeosu |  South Korea | 28 | 34 | 32 | 34 |
| Moscow |  Russia | 12 | 10 | 12 | - |
| Querétaro |  Mexico | 6 | 6 | - | - |
| Wrocław |  Poland | 6 | - | - | - |
Organization
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| Better City, Better Life, the theme of Expo 2010. |
After winning the bid to host the Expo in 2002, Shanghai began a monumental task to reshape the city. More than AU$48billionwas spent for the preparation, more than the cost of cleaning up Beijing in the preparations for the Olympics in 2008. Shanghai began clearing 2.6 square kilometres along the Huangpu River; that involved moving 18,000 families and 270 factories, including the Jiang Nan Shipyard, which employs 10,000 workers.
Six new subway lines were opened between 2008 and 2010; four thousand brand new taxis were added in the month before Expo2010 opened and city night lights improved, using energy-saving LED technology.
During the expo, the expo site was crowded with national pavilions, sculpture gardens, shops, a sports arena and clam-shaped performing arts centre.
Shanghai trained more than 1.7 million volunteers and adopted Olympic-level security measures, adding metal detectors to subway entrances and screening cars entering the city.
The Shanghai Expo also featured an online version of the expo grounds featuring 3D renderings of the expo grounds, and a 3D version of the pavilion interior and offerings.
Participation
The Shanghai World Expo provided an unparalleled opportunity for the tourism industry. During 2010’s Spring Festival, Shanghai received 2.79 million tourists, an increase of 12 percent from the previous year, resulting in record high numbers of visitors. Overall Shanghai’s tourism revenue achieved an increase of 13 percent year on year during Spring Festival, resulting in RMB 2.1 billion in total revenue. |
| Flags of participating countries waving in front of the China pavilion |
Attendance
After six months, 73,084,400 total visitors visited Expo 2010, breaking the previous record set by Expo 70, which had attracted around 64 million visitors. Organizers had expected 70 million visitors at the start of the expo. Approximately 94% of attendees were Chinese nationals.Shortly after the Expo concluded, news reports emerged detailing how state employees (including workers of state-owned companies) were "ordered to pile onto buses, trains and planes and head to the Expo 2010 in Shanghai" in order to fulfill the target of 70 million visitors. Employees of some state-owned companies were allegedly threatened with loss of their wages if they did not attend. Coupled with the fact that only a limited number of visitors were allowed into each pavilion at a time, this contributed to the extremely long lines.Opening ceremony
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| Fireworks in the opening ceremony. |
Closing ceremony
The closing ceremony was held on October 31, 2010, with numerous world leaders in attendance including Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister of China, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, Mari Kiviniemi, Prime Minister of Finland, Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of Bahamas, Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho, Ram Baran Yadav, President of Nepal and Ban Ki-moon, General Secretary of the United Nations.Expo music
Performances
About 20,000 performances were set to be staged between May 1 and October 31 in 2010, many singers present at the expo song writing and preparation process since 2008. Performers included Alan Tam, Gigi Leung, Stephanie Cheng, Khalil Fong, Hacken Lee, Denise Ho, Hins Cheung, Vincy Chan, and the Harvard Din & Tonics.Theme songs
- The official theme songs of the Expo were "City" by Jackie Chan and "Better City, Better Life" by Quincy Jones.
- The promotional song of the Expo was "Right Here Waiting for You 2010" (simplified Chinese: 2010等你来; pinyin: èr líng yī líng děng nǐ lái).Released during the 30-day countdown on April 1, it was originally written by a Japanese singer, Mayo Okamoto. Okamoto's agency announced that the Expo Committee requested the permission of the use of the song, and Okamoto's management agreed.
- The theme song for Shanghai World Expo volunteers was "By Your Side" (simplified Chinese: 在你身边; traditional Chinese: 在你身邊; pinyin: zài nǐ shēn biān) by Eason Chan.
- The theme song for the Shanghai World Expo for the Chinese culture was "The World Watching China", sung by Korean/Chinese singer Han Geng.
Mascot
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| Haibao. |
Expo Axis
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| Expo Axis at night. |
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| Expo Axis. |
Theme pavilions
There were five central theme pavilions at the Expo 2010, exploring different aspects of urban development. They were called Urban Footprints, Urban Planet, Urbanian, City Being, and Urban Future.National pavilions
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Corporate pavilions
Corporate pavilions included: Aurora Pavilion, Broad Pavilion, China Railway, China State Shipbuilding Corporation Pavilion, Coca-Cola Pavilion, Cisco Pavilion, Information and Communication Pavilion, Oil Pavilion, Japanese Industry, PICC, Private Enterprises Joint Pavilion, Republic of Korea Business, SAIC-GM Pavilion, Shanghai Corporate Joint Pavilion, Space Pavilion, Space Home Pavilion, State Grid and Vanke Pavilion.Legacy
Shanghai has announced plans to build a World Expo Museum with the intention of exhibiting Expo exhibits and popularising World Expo history.
The Shanghai Expo was touted by the Chinese government as yet another first-rate global scale event, similar in significance to the Beijing Olympics, which would symbolise the economic and political rise of China in the 21st century. The event would demonstrate to both the Chinese populace and foreign nations the enormous progress of China's urban development in the heart of the nation's economic hub of Shanghai. The event received saturation media coverage in the Chinese media both in the lead up and during the World Expo. According to China analyst Tom Doctoroff, “In terms of what the city was able to achieve, the Chinese were impressed. Shanghai stepped up a level in internationalization”. Although the event was widely recognised domestically, the Expo was far less effective in reaching a global audience. This was demonstrated by the fact that only less than 10% of the 70 million plus visitors was foreign.
Controversies
A number of controversies surrounding the Shanghai Expo existed. Some involving domestic issues while others involve other countries that participated in the Expo. The issues range from human rights, politics or responses from the government at the time of the hosting of the Expo.
Posted in: World Fairs
