Shanghai launched the six-month World Expo yesterday with a star-studded gala ceremony set to end in a lavish blaze of fireworks and light along the city’s riverfront.
Still basking in the glow of its successful staging of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is treating the Expo as an equally important showcase for its growing political and economic clout.
From the US to North Korea, a total of 189 countries will take part in the six-month display of ideas, culture and technology expected to attract at least 70 million visitors — the vast majority of them Chinese.
“Expo 2010 Shanghai is now open!” Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) declared, after the national anthem rang out in the Expo cultural center and the flags of all participating countries were paraded through the giant hall.
Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan serenaded thousands of guests including 20 world leaders to open the event.
The gala — set to end with a fireworks and light show planned by the team behind the opening and closing ceremonies for the Vancouver Winter Olympics — was a departure from past World Expos, with an all-star line-up.
“We look forward to stunning the world,” said Ignatius Jones, the artistic director of the ceremony, which was to feature huge fireworks and a chain of searchlights along a 3.5km stretch of Shanghai’s riverfront.
Participating countries at the Expo will vie to outdo each other in presenting the best they have to offer the world — with a particular eye on China’s market of 1.3 billion people.
Denmark has made a splash by bringing its Little Mermaid statue out of Copenhagen for the first time, France has impressionist paintings and Rodin sculptures, while Italy is showing works by Renaissance master Caravaggio.
India is bringing a cast of Bollywood stars and Canada’s pavilion will bear the imaginative touches of contemporary circus troupe Cirque du Soleil.
Past Expos are remembered for leaving architectural landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Space Needle in Seattle, and introducing the television and electric lighting to a mass audience.
In Shanghai, the spotlight will be on the cutting-edge design of the national pavilions.
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