Testing time for security and crowd control as pavilions race to the finish

SHANGHAI - With only 30 days left, Shanghai is busy ironing out kinks and making sure it is ready for the most extravagant Expo in 151 years.

The city is adding final touches to infrastructure and beautification projects and trying to ensure all Expo pavilions open on time.

At a press conference to announce the 30-day countdown to the start of Expo 2010, Shanghai's vice-mayor Yang Xiong denied earlier reports that up to 20 percent of pavilions will not be ready by May 1.

Yang said delays are common for Expos and less than 10 percent of projects will have a delayed start.

The delays are mostly caused by problems transporting pavilion exhibition materials and the complicated design of some structures.

While Expo organizers are predicting that 70 million people, mostly Chinese, will visit the event, a number of insiders told China Daily they believe the number will top 100 million.

Because of this, security is a huge concern, especially in the wake of this week's suicide bombings at metro stations in Moscow, which killed 39 people.

But organizers are confident they can keep a lid on such threats by imposing tight checks on entrances to Expo garden, Yang said. No liquids, sharp items, matches or lighters will be allowed into Expo.

X-ray scans of commuters' carry bags have been expanded to all metro stations in Shanghai.

Another concern for organizers is crowd control at Expo entrances, where an average of 400,000 people will be passing through daily.

From April 20, six trial runs will be held at Expo garden, involving between 50,000 and 500,000 people each time, to try and solve any congestion problems that may arise during Expo.

According to the city's tourism authority, the testers will be Expo construction workers and volunteers from Shanghai, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Among these are 30,000 travel agents.

On April 25, up to 500,000 people will take part in the last trial run, with 350,000 of them from Shanghai.

A total of 23 activities, including a flag-hoisting ceremony at the China pavilion, an Expo parade and other cultural performances, will be included in the trials, which will run from 9 am to 11:30 pm to mirror the opening hours of Expo garden.

Organizers hope such trials will help test Expo garden's capabilities of handling ticketing, security checks, parking, traffic flow, sightseeing, dining and use of sanitary facilities.

Operation and emergency systems will also be put to the test, feedback collected and improvements made.

Meanwhile, Zhejiang and Jiangsu are gearing up for the spillover effect from Expo.

Neighboring Zhejiang, which is expected to receive around 20 million visitors between May 1 and Oct 31, is working to ensure its tourists will be well informed during their visit.

Around 100 information centers in the provincial capital of Hangzhou have been set up to provide multilingual services. The local government is also planning to give away free travel coupons to visitors to the Zhejiang pavilion at Expo. The coupons can be used to offset some entrance fees.

(China Daily 04/01/2010 page5)