Wang, who has visited Hong Kong, says Shanghai can learn from that city about managing big crowds on the Bund and create a better environment for visitors to enjoy the sights along the Huangpu river, especially at night.

For fireworks displays over Victoria Harbor, the Hong Kong government would divide the area into sections and limit the number of visitors in each section, she said. When a section filled, no one was allowed to enter.

"Shanghai can do the same thing for big celebrations and grand activities," she said.

Mikkel Stroerup

Mikkel Stroerup - 26, from Denmark, Staff member at the Odense Case Pavilion [Shanghai Daily]

26, from Denmark

Staff member at the Odense Case Pavilion

On a cold afternoon, Mikkel Stroerup argues - in fluent but rather blunt Chinese - about the merits of Chinese versus foreign bicycles, with a Chinese visitor.

"He tried to convince me that the bikes made in China are as good as or better than those made in Denmark," said Stroerup, who certainly does not agree.

Stroerup who learned Chinese as his major in university went to Peking University as an exchange student and in 2005 arrived in Shanghai for further studies.

When the Expo ends, he plans to continue.

"Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn," he said.

At the Odense city pavilion, Stroerup takes care of dozens of bicycles that are both displayed and ridden by visitors on a 200-meter-long track. It's the only place in the Expo where one can ride a bike and he helps children to ride.

Outside the Expo, he cleans and maintains local bikes for free on the city streets.

He said that Odense, the birthplace of fairy tale writer Hans Christian Anderson, is a "modern fairy tale itself" and most residents prefer bicycles to cars.

When big cities, like Shanghai, have so many cars, drivers have little respect for cyclists, Stroerup said.