The six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a consortium of countries set up as an alternative to NATO is being held right now in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. But it's missing one important guest - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who may be missing the meeting in order to snub Russia. Instead, a delegation will go in his place while he... heads to the Expo. That's right: "...he is leaving Dushanbe on Thursday morning to Shanghai" for the World Expo, ambassador Ali-Asghar Sherdoost said to Reuters. Er... Welcome to our shores? 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 ›

It's Day Two of the Expo pandas and, predictably, Shanghai is going crazy for them. The ten panda cubs are fresh off the plane from the Woolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center outside of Chengdu and, according to all relevant parties, adjusting swimmingly. more ›

Matt Mayer is a British web and mobile developer for ReignDesign who has lived in Shanghai for 4 years. He is the man behind ExploreShanghai, the No. 1 online Shanghai metro map which is also now available as an iPhone app. 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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

This irks us almost as much as that really terrible opinion piece on Xinhua that poked fun at Facebook's "gloomy" status in China without ever mentioning that the service has been blocked. Guess who's on Facebook (and fellow blocked social networking tool Twitter)? The World Expo. more ›

Remember that Kookaburra naming contest we told you about that the Australian Pavilion was holding? Someone won it. Haibao's new BFF from Down Under is now called Peng Peng (鹏鹏). more ›

• Does this mean all the Haibaos we bought were illegal? The first licensed product store for the Shanghai Expo has opened in Beijing. [BJreview]
• Well, at least everyone at the Expo is bound to be smelling nice - Beauty company Shiseido and France (the country) are both producing two unique perfumes based on the scent of white magnolia. [Creative Match]
• Okay, one last bit about the expo: a survey showed that Chinese women love France, which had the second most popular pavilion, and Chinese men love America, the first most popular pavilion despite not even being confirmed a month ago. [Thomas Crampton]

As much as we'll sometimes snark on the World Expo, it's sure to present anyone who displays anything there a crapton of foot traffic. So if you're a photographer, the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion's offer is probably worth considering. more ›

The folks at ChinaTravel.net noticed a little (or perhaps not so little) something about a recent image of Haibao: more ›

So despite the U.S. promising to be at Expo 2010 and Hillary Clinton allegedly confirming its participation, Shanghai World Expo organizers still haven't actually received the letter of confirmation, according to Xinhua. It's only when this letter gets into the Shanghai World Expo's very eager hands that a country's pavilion is truly confirmed, apparently a completely different matter than whether someone has been appointed as Commission General of the pavilion. So why did the U.S. Secretary of State publicly appoint Jose Villarreal to his Commission General position if nobody had yet to actually apply with the Shanghai organizers? It's all too confusing for us so we'll just direct you to the much more capable hands of Shanghai Scrap. more ›

Tickets for the World Expo officially went on sale at 9am yesterday and already, peak-day tickets (tickets for the first three days and for the National Day holidays) had completely sold out. more ›

Jia's film, tentatively titled Shanghai Legend (上海傳奇), is scheduled to be finished towards the end of this year/beginning of next, and will be premiered around April 2010. more ›

Australia seems to be taking the early bird proverb pretty seriously these days. It became the first foreign pavilion to finish its outer structure last week, and then revealed its own official mascot for the World Expo - a kookaburra! And now it's looking for the Chinese to give the Ozzie representative a name. more ›

So the Shanghai World Expo organizers have set another date for when they will finally say “No way, no how, you're too late to build your pavilion now”: June 30. more ›

We knew you were curious about what song Jackie Chan sang this morning to welcome in the Expo year-long countdown, so we went and looked for it on Youku. Turns out there's already a video featuring Jackie, Lang Lang and Yao Ming! more ›

We thought we'd have another two years before the smoking laws came into effect, but it now looks like Shanghai's ready to ban cigarettes from public places - indoor venues, public transport and work areas - by January 2010. They're even discussing a penalty this time around! Officials say the law will help make the Expo smoke-free when it starts five months after... and since it's attached to the Expo, you can bet people will be enforcing this with maybe slightly more gusto than previous attempts to wipe out the cancer sticks. Still... it IS China. What will officials use as the go to way of establishing guanxi after? Lollipops? Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

Whilst not everyone loves the regular toothpastey Haibao, it would take a cold, cold heart not to love him in his new outfit. more ›

Definitely welcome news to our ears, eyes and headspaces - the televisions streaming constant looping advertisements in the back of Shanghai's taxis are thankfully on the out. more ›

The battle to bring the U.S. pavilion to the World Expo in Shanghai seems to just get more complicated as the days count down. According to China Daily, a Chinese-American oil industry executive called James I.C. Chiang is now planning his own vision of what the pavilion should look like: more ›

Political border disputes will be played out in miniature at Shanghai's World Expo next year, after rumors that World Expo organizers are planning a Taiwan pavilion within the Chinese section of the fair stirred up old tensions about Taiwan's political status. more ›

• Advisor: Financial crisis not to affect success of 2010 Shanghai Expo [Xinhua] "The global financial crisis will have only limited impacts on the Shanghai World Expo 2010, an official with the organizers said here Sunday. Wan Jifei, vice director of the Shanghai World Expo Executive Committee, pledged that the financial crisis would not affect the overall success of the Expo at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of China's political advisory body."
• The curious case of the disappearing TV drama [Danwei] "Looking at the headline numbers, 2008 was not a good year for TV drama producers in China. While TV drama production has grown by around 1,000 episodes annually every year since 2003, it actually dropped for the first time in five years in 2008."
• China's key sci-tech projects criticized for "retarded progress" [Xinhua] "China's major projects in its 15-year scientific and technological development program initiated in 2006 is progressing very slowly, a political advisor said here Sunday. The State Council, or Cabinet, approved the last major scientific and technological project late last year, he said. "It means we have spent one fifth of the time to start up the program." "

Can't wait to get your tickets for the World Expo? Neither can we! Luckily for all of us, we now have a couple of dates to look forward to: group tickets will go on sale on March 27 and the public can start lining up on July 1. Basic price will be 160 yuan, three-day passes will be 400 yuan and seven-day passes will be 900. Discounts will be offered to the disabled, seniors, students, Chinese service-people and early birds. Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

So why is it that the United States might risk “global humiliation for the American people” by not showing up at the Shanghai World Expo? Well, partially because they don't really know what a World Expo is... and partially because it's awfully hard to raise $61 million without any government help. more ›