Shanghai - a world fair to end all world fairs

SHANGHAI - The street hawkers of Shanghai may still sell the occasional Mao Zedong wristwatch to nostalgic tourists on Nanjing Rd, but modern China's obsession with Western brands is written large on the vast plasma screen televisions that adorn the glittering towers soaring far above into the milky sky.

The value of celebrity is spiralling upwards here too - a lesson that has not gone unnoticed by British business as it prepares to mount its challenge against the rest of the world at next year's Shanghai Expo - billed as the "Economic Olympics" and the largest commercial event ever staged.

The shock troops for the UK's bid to forge still-closer links with the soon-to-be No 2 global economy will, therefore, not come from the worlds of commerce, politics or even royalty but from sport, music and the arts.

Two permanent British pavilions, one representing Shanghai's long-standing twin city Liverpool, are setting out to stress creativity and modernity - things that China for all its vast physical resources are perceived to crave badly.

Two world-class orchestras, the London Symphony and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the English National Ballet will be dispatched to showcase Britain's cultural heritage in a country where interest in classical music and dance is growing rapidly.

Talks are also under way to secure the involvement of England footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria, while it is hoped that at least one James Bond will be there, possibly the most celebrated 007 of all, Sir Sean Connery.

Meanwhile, literary events will focus on the international allure of Harry Potter and the celebrity status of the boy wizard's British creator J.K. Rowling, to help lure interest in the business leaders waiting patiently in the wings. Mike Taylor, the creative director of Liverpool Shanghai 2010, believes Merseyside is well placed to exploit its footballing and musical fame with a series of interactive exhibits designed to appeal to the masses, in a city which has already spawned its first Fab Four tribute act, and where the weekly vicissitudes of the Premiership are followed with a keen eye.

Liverpool, the only UK city to stage a permanent presence at Expo 2010, has already been asked to draw on this venerable heritage to compose a theme song for the event and the Chinese would dearly love Sir Paul McCartney to swing by, too.

"These will be our attack brands for promoting the wider values of Liverpool, both its commerce and its cultural essence. We hope this will appeal to new audiences across these emerging markets," Taylor said.

It is predicted that 70 million people will visit the Expo site in the six months after it opens in May, most of them from China itself.

While no figures are available for the possible benefits to the wider economy, the calculation is that the Government-backed national UK pavilion, built and maintained at a cost of £24 million ($55 million), will earn Britain a still bigger slice of China's outward investment pie, valued in 2008 at US$56 billion ($78 billion).

Last week, the first of the 60,000 fibre-optic rods that will illuminate the futuristic "Seed Cathedral", sponsored by AstraZeneca, BP, Barclays, Diageo and GKN, were being installed at the UK pavilion.

The structure, as big as a football pitch, was designed as a centrepiece by artist and architect Thomas Heatherwick, whose previous work includes B of the Bang in Manchester.

New Zealand also has big plans for the Expo. A Government-funded $30 million pavilion will be built, which is expected to attract 40,000 people a day over the Expo's six-month run.

The theme of the New Zealand pavilion will be "cities of nature, living between land and sky", and its design includes a floating glass perspex canopy and a roof-top garden.

The middle of the garden will feature a Rotorua-style geyser and thermal garden, and plants will vary from those found in New Zealand's mountainous regions to coastal plants.

The man overseeing the Expo 2010 project is Zhou Hanmin, a forceful and fluent English speaker with a penchant for quoting Churchill, who sees the event as an unprecedented opportunity for the 191 countries and 50 international organisations taking part.

"We will promote this as the largest possible event ever held in the history of civilisation for human gathering, under the theme of a better city, a better life," he said.

"This is not merely an event for the city of Shanghai or the country of China, but for the whole world to chase a very important target in a more harmonious world.

"Without the strongest support it would not be possible to create this, the greatest-ever event since the first Expo in 1851."

Things have come a long way since that first Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in London.

Yet despite its critics, past world fairs have marked several changes in the world economy. Chicago in 1933 heralded a return to prosperity after the Great Depression, while Expo '70 in Osaka announced Japan's post-war economic miracle.

But nothing has been planned quite on the same scale as Shanghai.

The site itself, still rising at breakneck speed on the banks of Huangpu river, is the size of Gibraltar. More than 55,000 people were relocated to make way for the bulldozers, their 18,000 homes demolished and 272 factories closed and moved, with their 70,000 workers. Hundreds of kilometres of new underground railway have been built, a new deep-water port constructed, airport capacity doubled and a tunnel sunk to bury the unceasing traffic below the Bund waterfront. Sewerage and water systems have been overhauled.

Officials have spent an estimated US$50 billion getting the city ready in time - more than three times the total cost of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Professor Tang Zilai, responsible for the urban best practice area at the Expo, believes the event marks a shift towards greater social and environmental concerns in Shanghai, as well as boosting the city's challenge to London and New York's financial centres.

"A big event brings investment in infrastructure and the opportunity to stimulate urban regeneration. It also gives us the opportunity for the local economy and to expand the attractions we have for visitors."

Tang believes the Expo will deliver a 3 per cent boost to the Shanghai economy, which fell below the national average last year despite registering 7 per cent growth.

But few imagine that if it were being planned now, Expo 2010 would be held on such a gargantuan scale. The global recession nearly cost the event its most high-profile exhibitor. For a long time it was uncertain whether the US, banned from providing public funding towards Expo, would have a presence - but "support" from the Chinese authorities eventually saw private sponsors, including General Motors, come good.

Lindsey Ashworth, the development director of Peel Holdings, Liverpool's main sponsor for the event, has big plans of his own - a 30-year, £20 billion Shanghai-style redevelopment of the Merseyside waterfront that he hopes will house 50 skyscrapers.

The centrepiece for the first phase of the development will be the Shanghai Tower, named in honour of Liverpool's twin.

Ashworth was in China last week looking for a local partner on the venture, which is expected to get planning permission during the Expo. He has little time for those deterred from long-term decisions by what he sees as short-lived economic turbulence.

"You are always either coming out of a recession or going into one. It will be very different in five years. A recession is the time to start building something," he said.

EXPO 2010
* Held in Shanghai, China from May 1 to October 31.
* 191 countries expected to take part.
* 70 million people expected to visit.
* New Zealand spending $30 million on its pavilion.

- INDEPENDENT