The city is ready for the cultural gala, and not just because of the huge amount of money the government is pouring into new landmark structures. Rather, it marks a shift in the city's psyche from that of nervous upstart to one full of confidence about the future.

The six-month party is also advancing a larger government goal of bolstering the economy and turning Shanghai into a global financial and shipping center and a world-class city in the 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 longer than 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 gate every day - equivalent to dropping a different European city into the middle of Shanghai seven days a week.

Furthermore, the city's officials and economists are waiting to see if the expo can help transform the city from an economy based on manufacturing to one based on high-value-added services.

As outlined in government reports, one of Shanghai's key tasks until 2012 is to quicken the pace of its economic development, with the service sector at its core.

By 2012, the service industry will be worth over 1.1 trillion yuan and will account for more than 80 percent of the GDP of the city's central areas.

"In addition to giving Shanghai's infrastructure a boost, the expo will lay the foundation for the development of new industries such as tourism and a series of service sectors," 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's economy 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's economy 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 be hugely lifted by the expo, which, together with the proposed new Disneyland, will create unprecedented opportunities for growth for Shanghai's service economy, Xu added.

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