World Expo Shanghai has chosen more than 55 projects - almost twice the expected number - to exhibit in the Urban Best Practices Area of the Expo site, organizers announced. And Guangzhou's water treatment project was included in the list.
From May 1 to Oct 31, 2010, Guangzhou will display the beautiful Pearl River waterfronts after water and surrounding improvements to Expo participants and visitors to demonstrate its environmental protection concept.
According to the official website of Shanghai World Expo, the Urban Best Practices Area offers a stage for cities around the world to propose their solutions to urban issues from different perspectives.
Originally, Expo organizers planned to choose some 30 examples for the exhibition. Due to the overwhelming number of proposals from around the world, the organizers not only expanded the possible number of projects to be displayed, but they also postponed the deadline for cities to make submissions to January 31 this year.
In the end, the international selection committee of UBPA received 113 projects, among which 106 proposals from 87 cities were valid, said Zhou Hanmin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.
Although the first period of selection is now over, the 51 cities that missed out can still apply to exhibit for a short period of one to 10 days during Expo.
Zhou said some projects, such as public policies, are difficult to display in a physical way. Other means of display, such as forums or multi-media presentations, may be more suitable for them.
