A opening ceremony of a world exhibit EXPO 2010 will be held tonight at Shanghai, China’s center of trade.

Many world leaders are expected to appear at this ceremony. This event is expected to be the most spectacular event after the

World EXPO 2010 logo

Olympics at Beijing in 2008. Chinese president Hu Jintao will lead the opening. When we consider how much attention the Chinese devoted to the organization of the previous Olympics, we can only guess how big a spectacle this exhibit is going to be.

This is China’s first time to host the exhibit, on which over 58 billion dollars was spent. For comparison only, on Beijing Olympic Games 42 billion dollars was spent.

It is estimated that this year’s world exhibit is going to attract around 70 million visitors.

We will mention some of the invites who will attend the opening of the exhibit: French president Nicolas Sarkozy, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, the  European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. The representative for our country is going to be Vuk Jeremić, the chief of diplomacy.

Among the participants are Jackie Chan, the pianist Lang Lang, the star of the opera, Andrea Bochelli and the actress Halle Berry.

When it comes to the security measures, entrance will be allowed only to a few employees, journalists and VIP personnel, and there will be a helicopter circling around the pavilion, supervising the event.

EXPO is very popular among the citizens of Shanghai, although some of them are dissatisfied because of the security measures and

EXPO 2010 corporate joint pavilion

the invasion on their privacy. There is police on every corner of the town where pavilions can be found, and the contents of people’s bags are being checked in all of the hotels and subway stations.

We believe it is not easy to handle all of that army and police, but it is also very important that all goes in the best order, so that the Chinese can show they are well-equipped to have everything under control in an extremely delicate social situation.

World exhibits have been being held every year since the middle of the 19th century, and the goal is to show technical achievements of the humanity.

More on events during the exhibit can be found on the formal site.