Visitors to the city's 2010 World Expo will be surrounded by an eco-friendly system with a natural ventilation system, flowing drinkable water from the Huangpu River and cultural landscape models from all over the world.

The expo's landscape plan designed by Tongji University's department of landscape studies was revealed yesterday as the 1st International Landscape Studies Education Symposium was kicked off in the city.

The expo site set aside in the southern part of the city spans both sides of the Huangpu River, covering a total area of 6.8 square kilometers.

One of the key goals for designers is to reduce the "tropical island effect" in modern cities and create an atmosphere that is three to five degrees Celsius cooler inside the expo site than that outside.

"All of the cooling measures will be based on natural and environmental protection measures, rather than air-conditioning facilities, to make visitors feel as if they had walked into forests," said Liu Binyi, dean of Tongji's landscape studies department and designer-in-chief of the expo landscape scheme.

For instance, designers will install water spray systems in roadways, greenery areas and other major activity sites in the expo area, increasing the humidity and lowering the temperature.

Buildings and greenery belts will also be especially arranged in a line to form natural wind corridors to enhance the open space ventilation, designers said.

For the water system, designers also plan to take water from the Houtan Wetland - the only wetland in the local downtown area - and turn the river water into clean drinkable water through settling, adding filtering plants and oxygen.

The water will flow through the entire expo site before being discharged back into the Huangpu River.

Shanghai-style architecture such as shikumen and nongtang will also be part of the site.

Open squares will be paved with colorful bricks representing world-famous paintings and pictures illustrating 8,000 years of world history.

Running from May 1 to October 31, 2010, the World Expo is expected to receive about 435,000 visitors daily.

Part of the expo site will remain while the rest will be rebuilt into new city areas after the event.  

(Shanghai Daily October 29, 2005)