Miss Expo already? No worries! The government, anticipating your postpartum depression, has promised us all a museum dedicated to the World Expo 2010 by 2010. It will "conserve the typical world expo exhibits while offering a platform to popularize world expo history and current developments," says Zhu Yonglei of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. According to Xinhua, more than 200 expo participants have already signed on to donate exhibits - numbering 4,000 - to the museum once it's built. What Expo exhibits would you want to see in a museum? more ›

"A different sort of surreal experience came when I returned to California in August. Many people would give me a blank look, or seem to have just a vague sense of what I was talking about, when I mentioned that I had been to China’s first World’s Fair and it had made me think of Epcot-on-steroids, due to the scores of national pavilions and hangar-sized multi-country display halls there, which give attendees a sense of being able to take a virtual trip around the world." more ›

Every Friday, Weekendist brings you our picks of the best of what's coming in the next three days. more ›

Rarely would one associate the words 'paradise' with 'dictatorship'. However, North Korea, at least if its pavilion at the upcoming Expo is anything to go by, would care to differ. Thanks to Shanghai Scrap's Adam Minter, we've been treated to a few inside shots of a building whose walls bear the title 'Paradise for People.' Readers, judge for yourselves whether the interior matches up to your ideas of Pyongyang. more ›

We've already walked you through parts of Zone A and Zone B: here's our final photo series, covering Zone C. It's our favorite section of the Expo, containing the largest number of national pavilions and some of the event's most stunning architecture. Some gems: check out the pavilions from the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, and Switzerland. And if you've been keeping up with the "sorry spectacle" that is the USA Pavilion, we know you're going to visit it anyway, despite its drabness. more ›

We've taken you through Zone A of the Expo grounds, located on the Pudong side. Here, we share some shots from Zone B, home to the drab UN Pavilion, the magnificent Australia Pavilion, and a good number of representatives from Southeast Asia, from the traditional-style Malaysian palace to Singapore's futuristic silver globe. Sadly, the latter's infamous Durian Star was nowhere in sight. Guess we'll have to come back in May. more ›

Yesterday morning, we received a surprise invitation to the Expo's Pudong site, and jumped at the chance for a sneak peek of the national and group pavilions less than a month before the event's May opening. We spent six hours walking through Zones A, B and C, marveling at the amazingly innovative designs of certain pavilions, and being surprised by the drabness of others. more ›

• Oh no, turns out Shanghai has an epidemic of unhappiness! Plagued by the cost of living, housing prices and medical bills, they are noticeably less happy than their peers in less developed cities. [Shanghai Daily]
• So is the Expo really a world-class event or is it just something for other countries (and our city) to burn money on? Two writers offer their takes. [Danwei]
• Speaking of money, the numbers are out and hte Shanghai municipal government has allotted 170 billion RMB on urban facilities in 2009, an all time high. [China Daily]

Holy Christmas, is THAT what's promoting our six month world-class event in New York City's Time Square? Considering how much ad space costs there, you'd think the Expo promotion team would have spent a little extra money to make their ad look a little less like someone had to do a rush job in photoshop. At least pay for a decent font or something. more ›

So visas might have been tough to get for the 60th anniversary and the Olympics, but officials swear that The Expo won't be the same. The Foreign MInistry has said that it already has "an established policy" for providing quick visas to Expo visitors. Unfortunately, he didn't specify what that "established policy" was or what kind of visas would be easy to get and they most probably aren't business visas - so all you English teachers are still kind of screwed. Sorry. more ›

Given that the Shanghai Expo is supposed to represent the future, it was only a matter of time before we were inundated with robots. Shanghai has kindly delivered robots, and not just any robots: Haibao robots! more ›

Adding to the list of pains in the butt (literally, in this case!) for dogs and their owners, local police recently announced that all pooches need to be vaccinated before the World Expo to ensure the public's safety. But the notice, which was released yesterday, underlines one big problem. more ›

Last May we were introduced to the kookaburra "Peng Peng", Australia’s cheeky mascot for the 2010 World Expo. Shortly after, a whole gaggle of pavillion mascots started popping up: the Francophile feline "Léon", the stinkin "Durian Star" from Singapore, the turd-like “Yabi” from Taiwan, the not-so-gentle Giant “Tai” from (you guessed it) Thailand and everybody’s favorite blue gang “the Smurfs” representing the shared Belgium/ EU pavilion. more ›

This photo was taken this morning on Yongfu Lu near Fuxing Lu. Nothing screams "Better City, Better Life" like walking on some blacktop. A local business owner said this ugly, quick-fix approach to city planning could be a sign that Shanghai is really feeling the crunch as it tries to get its myriad "beautification" projects completed before the May 1 start of the 2010 World Expo. On the plus side, asphalt sidewalks will probably last a bit longer than the already-cracking-and-coming-unstuck brick ones laid out not too long ago in other parts of the French Concession. But we're definitely not looking forward to strolling on — or getting stuck to — these human driveways when they help make Shanghai's already muggy summers even muggier. more ›

When we first read that New York Times article about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's support of the USA Pavilion effort here in Shanghai, something didn't sit quite right with us. It's not that the facts didn't seem correct or anything - but almost no mention was made about why Clinton stepped in to raise money in the first place. Wasn't there already a group of people meant to do that? more ›

So while we were busy drinking it up in celebration of the New Year, the industrious Shanghai Expo people finally released the English version of their Expo site, complete with an English-speaking Haibao. And guess what? Our little blue toothpaste squeeze talks in a high pitched, clipped British accent. more ›

Adam Minter is an American writer in Shanghai, China, where he covers a range of topics, including the Chinese environment, religion in contemporary China, trade, sports, and cross-cultural issues between the West and Asia. Minter’s work has been published in The Atlantic, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, Mother Jones, Scientific American, ARTnews, and other publications. He blogs at Shanghai Scrap. Today, he shares five Expo-related reasons he's looking forward to 2010 (in no particular order/ardor). more ›

The November winners for the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion's ongoing photo contest, The People's Archive, have now been released... and this time, it seems that more people are now pulling out their old family photos (yay!). more ›

In case you didn't think you were getting enough information about the Expo spoon fed to you already, organizers are planning to bring an Expo TV channel to the city's airwaves in March. The channel would present "all-around programming about the international fair, including news reports, films and TV serials, dramas and cartoons," according to Shanghai Daily. Because only national authorities are allowed to open a new TV channel, local officials will have to convert a current station - either ICS or Dragon TV - into the new Expo-only one. more ›

When the Expo people first revealed Haibao, we were less than pleased. Then the Australian mascot came along and we thought to ourselves, well at least we're not that obvious. Then the Taiwanese mascot made its appearance and we were thankful that at least Shanghai wasn't being represented by something that looked like crap. Literally. But this new Singaporean mascot? It actually makes us happy that Haibao's ours. more ›

A Shanghai-based English copywriter has discovered some hilarious Chinglish slogans, including a new one for Haibao that explains the Shanghai Expo mascot's consistently happy visage. Since we've previously determined that Haibao is a boy mascot, all we can think of say to his slogan is... "Really? So soon?" more ›

Photos are Bath Time by Elke Martini and World Expo Construction (世博建筑) by Yilong Design more ›

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With the expo drawing closer and closer, we were excited to hear that the Hong Kong Pavilion was officially completed on Monday. Adopting the theme of "The Infinite City," the pavilion has three exhibition levels, each "highlighting a different aspect of Hong Kong's connectivity and creativity," says China View. The top level will "showcase Hong Kong's natural heritage and the way in which the compact urban cityscape co-exists sustainably with extensive swathes of greenbelt, wetland and woodland areas," and therefore the entirety of the third floor has been plowed into an indoor wetland park. Hong Kong will also model its multifunctional smart card as an Urban Best Practice Area for the Expo. more ›

Shanghai native Xi Wenlei, or XiZi as he is called on the Net, won the competition for the second month running this September. His winning work, with a composition that suggests a painting, shows a cat sitting next to an open window of an old Shikumen House, which is to be dismantled to make way for the Expo. Not just any window, the one in his photograph is made of multicoloured glass panes, a relic from a soon to be bygone era. XiZi has made nostalgic imagery expression of Shanghai’s old days juxtaposed with the present his signature style. more ›

News on the USA pavilion has been somewhat scarce - at least on this site - since it quit being a joke and turned into something real. But now, as we count down the last 250 days to the Expo, it's somehow made its way back on our radar. more ›

Remember that People's Archive photo competition being hosted by the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion that we told you about way back when? If you submitted something, you might want to check to see if your photo has won. more ›

Haibao, everybody's favorite blue thingamajiggy that somehow represents the Expo, has gained a back story and guess what? He's ~*magic*~! more ›

We think the pictures speaks for itself, but in case you have trouble recognizing this triple threat of Chinese celebrity, that's Lang Lang playing air piano, Jackie Chan giving you the thumbs up and Yao Ming towering above them with a slightly deflated looking Haibao perched on his shoulder. Oh wait, maybe that makes this a fearsome foursome? more ›

Shanghai Daily's recent article about the city starting a new phase in its campaign to wipe out those hilarious Chinglish signs reminded of something: this sign we snapped earlier this year at the Pearl Tower. more ›