Maglev trains whisked visitors into the city for Expo 2010, a showcase visited by up to a million people a day. Borrowing ideas could help China’s economic powerhouse work out how to accommodate 50 million people by 2050

LONG BEFORE the Shanghai Expo opened, last May, the organisers told the Irish Consul General in the city, Conor O’Riordan, that it was going to be a big success. When he asked how they could be so confident, the typically Chinese response was: “Because it has been decided.”

And a success it was. The Shanghai extravaganza attracted a world record of more than 73 million visitors in the six months it was open – it closed on October 31st – exceeding the previous highest turnout, of 64 million, at the 1970 Expo in Osaka, Japan. Becoming a world-beater is hugely important to China.

According to the English-language China Daily, Shanghai “cemented its reputation as an international financial centre and a city of world stature”. As the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said, it was now recognised as “one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities”.

Just as the 2008 Olympic Games became a spectacular showcase for Beijing, so China’s most outward-looking city seized on the chance to demonstrate through Expo 2010 that it is every bit as good as – if not better than – London, New York, Paris or any other city.

The real message of Shanghai was about the ambition of China being open to the world. Billboards at the maglev-train station at Pudong airport carried images of the city’s stunning skyline, or Chinese calligraphy, or traditional dancers, with the slogan “China’s Beauty: Show the World”.

Foreign visitors arriving at the airport are gobsmacked by the maglev, which reaches a speed of 431km/h to cover the 37km journey into Shanghai in seven minutes. The train is so sleek and sophisticated that it’s hard to believe China is still technically a developing country.

Foreigners accounted for only 5 per cent of the attendance at Expo, however. The vast bulk were Chinese – and that’s what made it so important: they learned a whole lot more about the world, with a record 189 countries participating.

The “Better City, Better Life” theme was particularly relevant to China, where 200 million people have moved to cities over the past 30 years. As a China Daily editorial said, “the ideas it presented for cities and urban life should be its greatest legacy to both the host city and country”. The tendency to make “everything bigger, higher and wider” showed that “many Chinese urban planners have yet to understand urbanisation in a sustainable sense”, it added, citing densely built tower blocks as examples of how urban life had been compromised.

But if the Chinese were expecting Expo 2010 to point the way they would have been disappointed by most of the national pavilions and even by some of the cities that were supposed to be showing best practice; many, such as Liverpool, merely used it as a marketing tool.

Others, including Ireland, chose to ignore the “Better City, Better Life” theme altogether, and concentrated on presenting aspects of their culture. The French put on a picture show, featuring the impressionists, which is why it became the top foreign pavilion, with 10 million visitors. Denmark brought the Little Mermaid all the way from Copenhagen; the Swiss were offering cable-car rides above an Alpine meadow on the roof of their pavilion; Canada had Cirque du Soleil to entertain the masses; and Spain’s presentation of itself packed a powerful punch.

The Netherlands pavilion, called Happy Street, was an open-air joke, with typically Dutch buildings – all grey – slung out from a spiral ramp; the UK’s “seed cathedral”, consisting of 60,000 transparent rods containing seeds, underlined the importance of biodiversity in the city.

Expo’s 5.2sq km site, spread out on both sides of the Huangpu river, pulled in an average of 370,000 visitors a day, rising to a record 1.03 million on October 16th; the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland’s top tourist attraction, is lucky to get that number in a year. What’s more, Chinese visitors were prepared to queue for several hours just to sample one of the shows. China’s gigantic red pavilion, in the form of a modern pagoda, was filled with its achievements in urban development, including the elevated expressways in Shanghai.

The city’s Pudong skyline, directly across the river from its famous Bund, is mesmerising – dazzlingly so at night, when the skyscrapers are lit like Hong Kong’s. But at ground level Pudong is dominated by big wide roads chock-a-block with traffic. It is, in effect, an anti-city.

Even the city’s business community is seeking a more environmentally conscious approach to urban policy, as evidenced by the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion at the Expo; its main message, delivered on a 360-degree screen, was about how “dreams transform our city”.

Shanghai, China’s economic powerhouse, is believed to have spent at least €3 billion on the Expo, which is estimated to have generated more than €11 billion in revenue for the city. The real cost could even be as high as €60 billion, although that would include several new metro lines.

The Shanghai metro is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with 12 lines already open and plans for a further 10 by 2020. But then it’s a megacity with a population of 20 million or more. The true figure will be revealed after China completes a mammoth census that has involved six million census-takers visiting 400 million households over the past fortnight.

As for the Expo itself, only the Chinese pavilion and a few others will remain as physical legacies of the six-month show. Quite what impact it will have on how Shanghai plans to accommodate 50 million people by 2050 is an open question that affects the whole world.

Given the country’s vast scale and enormous economic clout, if China can put itself on the path of sustainable development, particularly in its ever-expanding cities, we would all reap the benefits because of the global impact of any reduction in Chinese carbon emissions.

Restrained elegance How the Irish pavilion measured up

Amid the architectural zoo of Shanghai’s Expo, the Ireland pavilion had a restrained elegance, projecting a contemporary image of the country to just over three million visitors; it also won a bronze medal from the Expo organisers for “theme development”.

The U-shaped building, designed by Des Byrne, the Office of Public Works’ senior architect, is laid out around a stepped courtyard. A plinth of sloping grass banks instantly evokes the greenness of Ireland; ramps of granite and timber guide visitors through it.

During the Expo, four large rectangular windows on the gables of the pavilion looked out over teeming throngs of visitors, giving glimpses of what was inside and also views out towards other, rather more fussy pavilions in the European zone.

At night, lighting within the translucent triple-glazed facade turned the 3,000sq m building into a lantern. According to the OPW, this was intended to “reflect the fact that the Irish imagination has been shaped by the mercurial light of an Atlantic climate”.

Its 13 galleries were used to house an exhibition that set out to give Chinese visitors “an image of a country and a people with a long history, very beautiful scenery, historic buildings . . . and a strong cultural and artistic identity” – but also one that is modern.

Paul Keogh, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, thought the pavilion was a “very elegant architectural promenade”, but the exhibition was “spread too thinly to cover length of route and often didn’t engage visitors – for example, with still prints”.

The architect John Meagher said it was a “missed opportunity” not to have had a shop in the pavilion for Irish fashion, silver and other handicrafts. “The Finns were selling everything from cutlery to Nokia phones.” There was also a brisk trade in diamonds at the Belgian pavilion’s Antwerp counter.

Ireland’s participation in the Shanghai Expo cost €9 million, including €3 million for the pavilion and €1.4 million for the exhibition. There are tentative plans to dismantle it and reuse the building as an art gallery in Beijing; most of the other pavilions are to be demolished.