Shanghai - Less than a week away from the official opening of Expo Shanghai 2010, the pavilion of São Paulo received, on the last weekend, more than a thousand visitors. It was during the soft-opening to the public, organized by the committee responsible for the event for final testing. With a trained staff, the pavilion, which will officialy open its doors next Saturday, May 1st at 11:30 am, local time, is ready to welcome people from all over the world for the next six months.

Chinese, French and Brazilians were among the first visitors. ‘This is an innovative pavilion with great content’, said the 22 year old, Foreign Trade Chinese student, Tang Yan Li, who was one of the first visitors of the Sao Paulo pavilion, this Saturday, the 24th. For her, one of the most impressive aspects of the visit was the fact that she could interact with the panels and find out information, images, curiosities and data about the largest metropolis in South America. ‘There are beautiful images and photos that I had never seen before’, says Tang. ‘Here, I can

For French man Jean-Christophe Cherrier, who is in China for work, the pavilion gathers lots of information and presents a different side of the metropolis. ‘Here, one can learn a little about Sao Paulo and how the city has been developing and is managing issues such as visual pollution and the improvement of life quality to its inhabitants’, he points out. He reminds that, soon, Brazil will be in the spotlight of the world, with the 2014 Worldcup and Sao Paulo will be one of the host cities. ‘Man of tourists that come here will be interested in visiting the city, when in Brazil’, says Cherrier.

According to Chinese Chen li, Sao Paulo brought to Expo, an excellent example of public policy that upgrades life quality to the population. ‘Many pavilions have been emphasizing only the aesthetic and technological aspects’, he explains, adding that the ‘Clean City’ project, presented as an urban best practice, is an example to be followed by many cities around the world, including Shanghai.

All the tickets for the first day of visit to Expo Shanghai have been sold. This week, the organizers arrange the final settings and prepare for the official opening ceremony, restricted to authorities, scheduled next Friday, the 30th, and the grand opening to the public, from next Saturday, the 1st of May. From this Tuesday, 27th, many of Shanghai’s streets, avenues and bridges will be closed. An elaborate security system is deployed at the entrances of Expo, which includes searching the visitors and metal detectors. Expo Shanghai takes place from May 1st to October 31st of 2010 and should draw more than 70 million visitors.