SHANGHAI, China - Looking for the China of pagodas, farmers in rice paddies and Mao-suited masses pedaling bicycles through grim city streets?
You won't find such scenes here when Shanghai's World Expo opens on May 1. What you will find: A giant octopus, a 'mahjong table', an alpine meadow and an apple-shaped "green city," among dozens of pavilions in all shapes, colours and sizes featuring a kaleidoscope of visions for the Expo's theme: "Better City, Better Life."
And, of course, millions of other visitors.

Shanghai's Expo is likely to be the largest World's Fair ever, with some 70 million visitors expected to attend in the six months before it closes on Oct. 31. It's certainly China's biggest event since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The huge international show-and-tell will showcase China's status as a world industrial power, giving Shanghai - its biggest city - a long-awaited chance to show off its stunning transformation from crumbling factory town into modern global metropolis.

In Puxi, on the west side, a collection of local and corporate pavilions will demonstrate "urban best practices" focused on sustainable urban technologies and heritage preservation.

Expo organizers say most of the materials used to make the pavilions will be recycled, and they have pledged to eventually end with a "carbon-neutral" impact.

Landmarks

Like the Beijing Olympics, the Expo will leave a legacy of new landmarks, the most eye-catching the 226-foot-high (69 metres) China Pavilion - a scarlet structure some say looks like a mahjong table. Though imposing, it's much shorter than the 984-foot (300 metres) Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition.
A clamshell-shaped cultural centre that will seat up to 18,000 people, a vast conference centre and a new stadium also will permanently join the forests of skyscrapers lining the Huangpu.

"We have no restrictions at all. We welcome all visitors from all countries," said Cheng Meihong, vice chairman of Shanghai's tourism administration. Still, the realities of actually attending the Expo are bound to be daunting.
The $28 (190 yuan) tickets for May 1 opening day are already sold out. Touts are selling them online for triple or more the $23 (160 yuan) price for a non-peak day.
The level of crowding, especially on peak days when up to 800,000 visitors are expected, may exceed anything most people have ever experienced - the largest yearly gathering of people in the world, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj, draws only 3 million visitors.