The World Expo's 4th day, the first for which standard day tickets applied, attracted more than 140,000 visitors, beating the previous day's 131,700 but fewer than had been anticipated.
It was also the first day for night tickets, costing 90 yuan (US$13) for entrance after 5pm. More than 9,000 tickets had been sold by 7pm.
The standard day ticket costs 160 yuan while peak day tickets are 200 yuan.
Visitors enjoyed a double bonus yesterday with cooling breezes after two steamy days and there was less time spent in queuing.
Wang Zhiqing, a visitor from Jiangsu Province, said he and his family had expected to visit just two pavilions, based on what he had read on the Internet, but they managed to see seven.
"We waited a while at Italian and Austrian pavilions, but went straight into some South American countries' pavilions," he said, adding: "The day went relatively smoothly."
Visitors to popular pavilions such as those of the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Japan, had only about an hour to wait compared to the three to four hours experienced on the first three days. Others, for example Luxembourg, Russia and Canada, hardly had any queues at all.
This meant less stress for volunteers and guards.
"For pavilions which visitors needed to wait for a while, we would see that the line kept moving," said a security guard surnamed Zhang in Zone C. "But for the past three days, lines at several pavilions just stood still under the sun."
Russian tourist Olga Sror took advantage of the first day that night tickets were available when she decided to visit in the evening.
Night tickets are being sold, from 4pm to 8pm, at ticket offices near 10 of 13 entrances of the site. Visitors with night tickets can enter after 5pm.
A dozen visitors gathered at each of the 50 ticket offices at the entrance on Yaohua Road when the sales began at 4pm.
