Visitors brave rainstorms to visit Shanghai Expo

SHANGHAI - An expected typhoon did not affect the high spirits of visitors to the ongoing Shanghai World Expo Wednesday, with some of them bouncing from pavilion to pavilion while others tried to find shelter from rainstorms.

Visitors brave rainstorms to visit the Expo Garden on?Sept 1, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]?

Zhao Peng, a visitor from northwestern Shannxi Province, told Xinhua that he visited the Expo Wednesday because he thought fewer visitors would come since the typhoon was forecast to strike.

Related readings:  Tibet Pavilion attracts 6 million Expo visitors  Tennis masters swing into Expo  Showtime for Chinese kungfu at Expo  Guests from Shanghai Expo

However, the typhoon alert was removed Wednesday noon as meteorologists said the typhoon's route and intensity had changed and would have less impact on Shanghai.

Also, Shanghai's primary and middle school students were given a day off Wednesday, the first day of the new semester, for fear of the typhoon, but it turned out to be sunny Wednesday morning, so some students chose to visit the Expo, believing that rainstorms would have delayed many people' s planned visits to the pavilions..

A large rainstorm did soak Shanghai Wednesday afternoon, but at the Expo Garden, popular pavilions such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea, as well as Shanghai-General Motors Co. Ltd, still required more than three hours of queuing. Visitors, holding umbrellas, stood in line outside these pavilions in the rainstorm.

The rain has greatly helped in reducing the heat throughout this year's scorching summer in Shanghai, with mercury often soaring above 40 degree Celsius.

Further, the Expo Coordination Bureau said that only about 180,000 visitors were in attendance at the Expo Garden Wednesday, far fewer than an average of 350,000 to 400,000 daily visitors in August.

Officials note that students starting a new semester is the main reason for fewer visitors. More visitors, however, are expected at the end of September and October. The Expo, running from May 1 to October 31, is expected to attract more than 70 million visitors.

Since opening, over 47.55 million visitors have come to the Expo Garden, according to the Expo Coordination Bureau.