The theme of the exposition will be "Better City – Better Life" and signifies Shanghai's new status in the 21st century as a major economic and cultural center. It is expected to generate the largest number of visitors in the history of the world's fairs in terms of gross numbers, although it will have a tough time matching the per capita visit rate of the 1967 Montreal World's Fair, attended by 50 million people at a time when Canada's total population was a mere 20 million.

The event is tentatively scheduled to be held from 1 May 2010 – 31 October 2010.

	Infrastructure Preparations

The site of the event is the Nanpu Bridge-Lupu Bridge region in the center of Shanghai along both sides of the Huangpu River. The area of the Expo 2010 covers 5.28 km².

Officials in Beijing announced plans on March 6 2006, to begin construction of a second commercial maglev train system in China by the end of 2006. The new line to connect Shanghai and Hangzhou, which is expected to take four years to complete construction, is hoped to be in service for Expo 2010.