昨天(2010年1月21日)是上海世博会倒计时100天的日子。2002年12月3日，上海以88%的得票率获得2010年世界博览会主办权，这是走过159年历史、无数次点燃人类文明智慧火花的世博会，首次在发展中国家举办。截至目前，已有192个国家、50个国际组织、18个企业馆，以及国内31个省区市和港澳台地区确认参展上海世博会，国际参展方数量已创造世博会的历史纪录。对整个中国来说，上海世博会将是中国在过去三十年间快速发展的一个见证，也是国家实力的标志；而对上海来说，则是扩展经济发展，加强地区经济融合，促进城市发展的绝好时机。
Shanghai only has 100 days left inwhich to iron out all the kinks and make sure the city is expo-friendlyin order to achieve its goals。
By playing host to the 2010 WorldExpo, Shanghai is looking to roll back its glorious past, consolidatethe world's confidence in overcoming the economic meltdown and pushforward with an already breathtaking transformation in this city of18.6 million。
With an official budget of 28.7billion yuan ($4.2 billion)， Shanghai intends to carve a place in expohistory by topping milestones set by previous World Expos, such as the1893 Columbia Expo, which introduced the Ferris wheel。
"For China, the World Expo is atestament to the nation's rapid growth in the past 30 years. It is alsoa symbol of the nation's power," said Wang Jinzhen, vice-chairman ofthe China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)。
It will also fuel Shanghai's economic expansion, upgrade the restructuring of local industry, strengthen itsintegration with nearby economies, and propel the city's urbandevelopment, he added。
It is estimated that the expo willhelp the city's economy grow by 2 percent this year. Revenue from theexpo economy will amount to 100 billion yuan and thousands of new jobswill be created。
Shanghai has latched onto the expo asa chance to establish a powerful global profile in the same way theBeijing Olympics put a spotlight on the nation's capital in 2008.
The city is ready for the culturalgala, and not just because of the huge amount of money the governmentis pouring into new landmark structures. Rather, it marks a shift inthe city's psyche from that of nervous upstart to one full of confidence about the future。
The six-month party is also advancinga larger government goal of bolstering the economy and turning Shanghaiinto a global financial and shipping center and a world-class city inthe same league as New York and London。
When the event kicks off in May,Shanghai will have two new airport terminals and a subway system longerthan its counterparts in New York and Tokyo。
At the 5.28-sq-km expo garden, upwards of 800,000 visitors are expected to punch their tickets at the gateevery day - equivalent to dropping a different European city into the middle of Shanghai seven days a week。
Further more, the city's officials andeconomists are waiting to see if the expo can help transform the cityfrom an economy based on manufacturing to one based on high-value-addedservices。
As outlined in government reports, oneof Shanghai's key tasks until 2012 is to quicken the pace of itseconomic development, with the service sector at its core。
By 2012, the service industry will beworth over 1.1 trillion yuan and will account for more than 80 percentof the GDP of the city's central areas。
"In addition to giving Shanghai'sinfrastructure a boost, the expo will lay the foundation for thedevelopment of new industries such as tourism and a series of servicesectors," said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai Executive Committee。
Xu Wei, a strategist with Sinolink Securities, sees the upcoming expo, together with the city's planned Disneyland, as something that can help address fundamental economic challenges。
According to his research, the city'seconomy hit a bottleneck in 2000, since which time it has relied on the booming housing market for short-term expansion。
"The biggest problem facing Shanghai'seconomy is being able to find a long-term driving force, which the government has proposed to vitalize the service economy," he said。
The city's service sector will behugely lifted by the expo, which, together with the proposed new Disneyland, will create unprecedented opportunities for growth for Shanghai's service economy, Xu added。