Facts about Shanghai World Expo

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China's business and financial centre, Shanghai, is hosting the World Expo, which opened to massive crowds on Saturday.

The following is a fact file on the event, also known as the World's Fair:

WHAT IS IT?: Organisers call it the Olympics of science, technology and ideas. The main attractions are country pavilions where governments promote their values, culture and achievements.

THEME: Each Expo chooses a universal theme relevant to the future of humanity. Shanghai will look at urbanisation with the theme "Better City, Better Life".

DURATION: Six months, May 1 to October 31.

PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES: 189

VISITORS: Up to 100 million are expected.

CHINESE VISITORS: 95 percent of visitors are expected to be Chinese.

BUDGET: Shanghai has spent 400 billion yuan (58.6 billion dollars) in direct and indirect investments preparing for the Expo, according to state media -- more than was spent on the Beijing Olympics. But the Shanghai government only confirms its budget for the site is 28.6 billion yuan.

TICKETS: 160 yuan (23.50 dollars)

STATE VISITS: 20 world leaders were in Shanghai for the opening ceremony, but about 100 are expected to visit throughout the Expo.

SITE: 5.3 square kilometres (two square miles), more than twice the size of Monaco.

FREQUENCY: Expos have two categories: Large-scale "Universal Expositions", like the one in Shanghai, are held every five years, but smaller "International Expositions" can take place in between.

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\\\India's pavilion The Blue Danube swept across the Huangpu and Buddha smiled in holographic glory as India took its place in Shanghai's ultra-glitzy 2010 World Expo on Saturday. With 192 countries, including North Korea, and more than 50 organizations pitching their most futuristic, multi-million dollar tents at the 1,300 acre Expo site along Shanghai's Huangpu river, the Chinese couldn't have asked for more.  And competing with the brute force of innovation is India's $9 million pavilion – a replica of the Sanchi Stupa, tweaked with the Siddi Sayyid Jali, Ahmedabad's unofficial symbol, to package our secular muscle. As hundreds of Chinese visitors swooped down on the pavilion after its inauguration on Saturday, members of Design C, the Delhi-based unit of Hindustan Thompson Associates which executed the project on behalf of India Trade Promotion Organisation, could barely contain their excitement. Riva Ganguly Das, consul-general of India in Shanghai, is keen to get maximum number of business delegations to China during the Expo. It is a big opportunity to showcase India. There is a lot of interest in India, not only in its culture, but in its IT and industry.

A general view shows the Indian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo site. Shanghai unveils to the world on April 30,2010 its multi-billion dollar World Expo, an event many outside the country may struggle to recognise but which China hopes will be an opportunity to assert its growing global clout. REUTERS

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