China Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo Site. Courtesy of Shanghai World Expo 2010

Expo 2010 Shanghai

When: 1 May - 31 Oct 2010

Where: Shanghai Expo Site

Phone: +86 21 2206 2010

E-mail: office@expo2010.gov.cn

Web site: Expo 2010 Shanghai Website

A record-breaking 70 million visitors are expected to flock to Shanghai's Expo 2010, themed 'Better City, Better Life'. The eagerly awaited event is a platform for countries to present their innovative ideas about sustainable urban living to the rest of the world.

Expect big things from your visit to Shanghai between May and October - the event is gearing up to be the most expensive World Expo ever recorded. Countries from all over the world are going to great lengths to make their pavilions stand out to visitors - with Denmark even shipping in the iconic Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen to stand proudly in theirs. Not to be outdone, France have flown in works by Cezanne and Rodin from Paris' Musée d'Orsay - each masterpiece even arrived on its own plane!

Expo site: all the action takes place around the grand Expo Site in downtown Shanghai. The 5.28 sq km area has been transformed into a village of innovative pavilions, sculpted gardens and performance venues, all split in two by the Huangpu River. Visitors can navigate the site on the free shuttle bus and ferry services, or drive around on one of the eight-seater buggies available for hire.

Pavilions: the maze of buildings is so vast it could send your head in a bit of a spin, so grab a map from any of the Expo Site's entrances and plan your route. The country-themed pavilions cluster on the Pudong side of the river and are worth visiting for their ground-breaking architecture alone. No two are the same - be it Brazil's forest-green "bird's nest" made from recyclable woven wood, Italy's cube of transparent concrete or Japan's solar-powered dome. The UK's Cathedral of Seeds also makes for fascinating viewing. Its spiky shell is made from 60,000 fibre optic rods each with different types of seeds embedded in their tips.

Inside the pavilions, the countries demonstrate their methods of sustainable urban living. Using the latest technology - and a few imported national treasures as mentioned above - they recreate their nation's sights, smells and sounds for visitors. Journey through Swiss cities on an I-MAX enhanced cable car ride, lounge among Singaporean plant life in their rooftop 'hanging' garden and explore the different cultures of China at the many region-themed pavilions.

Once you've journeyed around the world, venture into the global-themed exhibitions. Delve into the lives of today's city-dwellers from across five continents at the Urbanian Pavilion, and feed your imagination with ideas of tomorrow's cities at the Pavilion of the Future.

Parades: heading up the wide-ranging programme of shows and performances are the spectacular daily Expo parades. Over the course of the event, 900 processions take place - making it pretty difficult not to stumble across at least one during your visit! The Global Culture parade is the biggest and grandest of all, with costumed performers from around the world dancing along Bocheng Road in Pudong while fireworks soar overhead. The Chinese Culture parades also take place along this route, but cross over the river to Longhua Road in the Puxi area for the Science and Technology parades, complete with robots!