This year (2010) Shanghai in China is the host of the World Expo, a series of expositions that have been running since the very first Great Exhibition of Industries of All Nations was held in London in 1851. This year’s exposition runs from 1 May to 31 October 2010 on two banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. When it is over, some of the pavilions – including the Chinese Pavilion – will become permanent features on the Shanghai landscape while others will be bulldozed to make room for houses.

The Shanghai Expo is the 84th since they began, the most recent in the series being the 2005 event in Aichi, Japan. The last time the event was in China was in Kunming in 1999. By early June, more than 13 million people had visited the Shanghai Expo, which claims to have the world’s largest ever fair site at 5.28 square kilometres. Nearly 200 countries are participating in the event as well as 50 international organisations. The organisers hope that by the time it finishes it will have attracted 70 to 100 million visitors.

Pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo

Most of the site is made up of pavilions from the participating countries ranging from relatively simple structures to impressive buildings, some of which will be adapted for other purposes after the event. There is a passport scheme where attendees can purchase a passport like document and have it stamped at the pavilions they visit.