Frank Huang, editor in chief of Global Chinese Press in Vancouver, visited Shanghai World Expo twice respectively in May and June. He said it is significant for China to host such a grand event.

"As we know, World Expo was a product of the Industrial Revolution and used to be hosted by the Western developed countries. From China's hosting of the current World Expo, people get to know that China is gradually approaching the world level in terms of industry, science and technology through its 30-year economic reform and opening up," he said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Learning from the experience of Vancouver World Expo, Frank said that he could surely expect Shanghai World Expo will help a lot to promote China's economic and social development.

"As the world expo brought a rapid economic development in Vancouver and enlarged the city's name on the map of the world as well, Shanghai World Expo could be expected to make China, Shanghai in particular, better known to the world and greatly promote its economic, social and urban development,"he said.

Describing Shanghai World Expo as a platform for the meeting between eastern and western culture, Huang said: "the current world expo is actually hosted in a developing country with an oriental ancient civilization, while world expo itself happens to be the outcome of the Industrial Revolution, representing the western modern civilization. So the exchange interaction between the eastern and western civilization has been obviously indicated in the current world expo."

"For this time, the world has chosen Shanghai to host the world expo, expecting a better exchange between eastern and western culture," he added.

Deeply impressed by Chinese public's ardor for the world expo, Huang said a lot of Chinese visitors he met with in the Shanghai World Expo Park told him how they had desired to see the expo with their own eyes.

"It seams to me that China has done a wonderful job to make the event so popular among the public," he said.

Chen Meili, a 73-year-old Shanghai origin, immigrated to Canada over 30 years ago. As the Chief Director of Shanghai Business Association (Canada), She was invited to attend the launching ceremony of the "Overseas Chinese Return Home to See Expo" activity in front of the China Pavilion on May 10, 2010. She talked about her exciting experience in her Shanghai World Expo tour.

"My general impression can be summarized into two simple sentences, China has the power and Shanghai has the capability. It has been no easy job to make Shanghai World Expo a great success," she told Xinhua.

Impressed by the hospitality and capability of the volunteers in the Shanghai World Expo Park, Chen said: "there were so many volunteers there giving very satisfying service."

"They were university students and can speak good English and Mandarin of course. They responded immediately to every question with perfect answer, never hearing them saying 'I don't know'." she said.

"Even my son, who was brought up in Canada, said to me that the volunteers' service was just wonderful. They could answer whatever questions."

"In this trip to my hometown, I witnessed great changes and considerable improvements in people's social morality, education, environment and public hygiene conditions. The most important is that people's living standards have been greatly improved," she said.