Shanghai Expo Passed Fifth Test

The Shanghai World Expo passed its fifth trial run Sunday as 350,000 visitors flocked to the site for a glance at the cultural gala.

April 25's test, which was dubbed the "pressure test," was by far the largest of the trials in terms of the number of visitors. Expo organizers were satisfied after improvements in the Expo's ticket handling, security, traffic and dining issues were made.

The most popular pavilions were the Asian and European pavilions, which had waiting times of 30 minutes on average. Japan Pavilion has drawn the most visitors.

The Expo has adopted more flexible and swifter measures to deal with the large number of visitors. More staff was deployed at entrances to accelerate security checks. Most visitors were satisfied with the acceleration that has reduced the waiting time to 10 minutes.

More volunteers had taken part in Sunday's test to meet the huge demand of information services. Information screens on the main roads showed the latest information to disperse the visitors.

Huge demand caused some restaurants to run out of food before lunch time ended in the first test last Tuesday. But restaurants have adjusted by yesterday's trial and were adequately prepared.

The Expo, which formally opens May 1, will draw an estimated 70 million visitors, including about 4 million visitors from overseas. Weekends and holidays are expected to be most crowded.

(Source: China.org.cn)