Expo 2010
Expo 2010 was held in Shanghai from May 1 to Oct 31, 2010. It is the 41st World Expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions, the first since 1851 in London. The theme of Expo 2010 was “Better City – Better Life” and signifies Shanghai’s new status in the 21st century as the “next great world city”. Covering 5.28 square km and containing over 70 exposition pavillions, Shanghai Expo was the largest World’s fair site ever. It also boasts the largest number of countries and people participating. By the end of the expo, over 73 million people had visited and 246 countries and international organizations had participated. On 16 October 2010, the expo set a single-day record of over 1.03 million visitors.
There were five central theme pavilions at the Expo 2010 – Urban Footprint, Urban Planet, Urbanian, City Being, and Urban Future – each exploring different aspects of urban development. 189 of the world’s 196 nations were represented at Expo 2010, either in stand-alone pavilions or within larger pavilions. The three largest national pavilions were the China Pavilion, the Africa Pavilion, and the Pacific Pavilion. The pavillion of United Kingdom won the title of Best Pavilion at the Expo for its novel design like Dandelion.
After the fair finished, most of the pavillions were dismantled. However, the China pavilion along with the theme pavilions, Expo Cultural Center and the Expo Axis wer remained. On 1 October 2012, the China pavilion was reopened as the China Art Museum. There are a few other national pavillions still open, such as Saudi Arabia’s and Italia’s.