Phew!

Shanghai has been cleaning up its act this year. We're receiving new sidewalks on every street, reorganizing power lines, and smoothing out major streets. We're planting trees and sprucing up green spaces. And we're building like mad people.

Building like mad people isn't unusual for Shanghai - but the scope of building within the Shanghai Expo site is really quite spectacular. The site covers 5.28 square kilometers and crosses the Huangpu River. You can watch construction progress on the Expo's website, but the small camera dwarves the impressive growth we see everytime we pass through the site.

Much like the Olympics in Beijing last year, China has invested much money and emotional energy into this Expo - the modern version of the world's fair. As the Olympics were Beijing's coming out party to the world, Shanghai will dance in the world spotlight with the Expo in less than one year. They expect 70 million visitors to enter the grounds, with participation by 200 countries and international institutions (those international organizations are important, since there are only 195 nations in the world).

Only recently added to that list 200-strong?

The United States of America.

A World's Fair without America's participation would have embarrassed China as well as America, if not more. Shamefully, America could not find someone organized and influential enough to make this Expo happen. First, it seemed unclear whether or not the U.S. desired involvement. When a ragtag team of fundraisers and organizers called Shanghai Expo, Inc. were finally authorized to organize American participation, they were unable to raise the appropriate amount of funds or to garner enough corporate interest. The U.S. government is legally prohibited from providing funds for a national pavilion, and so the state department sad rather idly by, waiting for these yo-yo's to put together something funding for a pavilion that would save face for everyone.

Dangerously close to the deadline - the Expo will begin in 292 days - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton grasped the reins and handed them over to Jose H. Villarreal, appointed U.S. Commissioner General to the 2010 World Exposition on July 1. Since that day, he jumped on a plane to Shanghai and organized an official announcement of US participation.


Americans in China (Jim Fallows and Adam Minter are two interesting ones, but my friends and I are included) were becoming increasingly nervous about the impact a lack of participation could have on U.S.-China relations, and the Expo as a whole. With this announcement, many Americans familiar with China breathed a collective sigh of relief.