PRETTY EXPO: Nearly 300 Miss Etiquettes begin a two-month training course on March 8 in Zhejiang Province preparing them for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo (JU HUANZONG)

The Shanghai World Expo will kick off in less than two months. From May 1 to October 31, Shanghai is expected to welcome 70 million visitors, say surveys by the Expo's consultants. That is to say, every day about 400,000 people will go to the Expo, a number that equals those of a medium-sized city in China.

Whether Shanghai has the capacity to transport this many people during the Expo's six months has been a big concern during the preparation period.

"The huge numbers will pose a challenge for the event," the Expo's Deputy Director Zhou Hanmin said at a Beijing press conference on March 8.

"There are 13 subway stations and four ferry docks on both sides of the Huangpu River which can take visitors directly to the Expo site," he said. "Private cars are not allowed within 500 meters of the site and the government will also provide 4,000 designated taxis to take people to and from the site."

Zhou said information on cultural events at each pavilion and the flow of visitors and traffic would be posted on the Internet and hi-tech information boards so visitors could choose when to visit the Expo.

"The 200,000 cultural performances during the Expo will be evenly distributed so that visitors can avoid overcrowding," Zhou said.

Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang introduced briefly the hi-tech elements involved in the Expo.

"Many great inventions including rockets, satellite, telephones, light bulbs showed up for the first time at world expos," Wan said. "Right after Shanghai successfully bid for the 2010 World Expo, the Ministry of Science and Technology conducted a project to show how science and technology make for a better life in a better city."

He said visitors can expect to see the latest technology from around the world, including China's largest solar rooftop energy system, and wind turbines powering buildings at the Expo. More than 1,000 hydrogen and electricity-powered cars will be used for transportation around the Expo site.

"I heard that the Japan Pavilion was made of a special thin material that can generate electricity on top, while the Switzerland Pavilion is made of soy bean fiber that can both generate electricity and be degradable," Wan said. "It sounds novel to me, and we should seize the opportunity to learn the new technologies of the world."

Zhang Haidi, Chairman of China's Disabled Persons' Federation and a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), talked about a special pavilion named Life and Sunshine. "It is a pavilion designed for the disabled," she said. "It is the first time in the history of world expos that a customized pavilion has been designed for them, and it will provide greater convenience for them."

That same day, at the Expo site, workers were toiling in freezing rain, putting final touches on many pavilions. Roads at the site were being repaved and piles of construction waste awaited removal.

Also that day, nearly 300 Miss Etiquettes began a two-month training course in east China's Zhejiang Province, preparing for the Expo.

The training includes three stages, namely military training, etiquette training and real time practices, with the first and the third practices held in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, and the second held in Shanghai, said Sun Weimin with the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.

The women, most of them college students, were selected from over 10,000 contestants in a nationwide competition over a span of eight months. More than 30 million people voted for the contestants over the Internet.

A test run of the Expo will take place from April 20 to 25 involving 200,000 people a day to test management capability, services and contingency measures.

The capacity of the China Pavilion means it is expected to be one of the most popular, but it also means not all aspiring visitors will be able to see it every day, so it would be kept open for visitors after the Expo ends, Zhou said.

"The 2010 World Expo is another major event for China following the country's successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Many hope the six-month showcase will bring about another similar legacy, and give Shanghai an additional boost on its journey in building itself into an international financial and shipping center."