Some public facilities at the Expo site will be moved to other prominent places in Shanghai after the six-month event ends in October, including the drinking water fountains, mist sprayers and mobile toilets that have won praise from visitors, a senior Expo official said yesterday.
Some other facilities will be auctioned, including the more than 110,000 stone benches around the site, each of which has a Haibao image, Xi Qunfeng, director of the Facility and Environment Management Department of the Expo bureau, told a press conference yesterday.
Meanwhile, some foreign pavilions are planning to donate parts of their pavilions' high-tech or special construction material and exhibits to the Shanghai Charity Foundation after the Expo. Bicycles at the Denmark Pavilion and the rattan covering the Spain Pavilion are expected to be on the donation list, the foundation revealed yesterday.
Exhibits will go to collectors through charity auctions while office supplies in pavilions will be donated directly to schools for migrant children. Proceeds from the auctions will be used to improve medical care in remote villages, officials said.
The 112 drinking water fountains and more than 10,000 toilet cubicles at the Expo site topped the list of facilities most admired by visitors, according to a recent survey by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The machine, developed by local universities for the Expo, uses cutting edge technologies to ensure water safety. The city's food safety authority inspected the water in the machines round the clock and has found no problem since the Expo opened on May 1.
The water fountains can be reinstalled at People's Square after the Expo, said Xi.
The mobile toilets, on the other hand, can be used for large exhibitions, such as the city's biennial auto show.
The mist sprayers that lower temperatures by more than 5 degrees Celsius in Expo waiting areas can be used at city tourism spots. The sprayers have already been installed at the waiting area of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
Meanwhile, amid the city's current hot and wet season, the Expo organizer has inspected the flood prevention system at the site. Four drainage systems, built exclusively for the Expo, and which are separate from the city's own drainage system, would ensure that no water is accumulated anywhere in the site, Xi said.
To cope with the ongoing heat wave, the organizer has asked all pavilions to adjust their air conditioners to slightly higher temperatures to prevent visitors from catching a cold because of the huge temperature difference. The air conditioners should be adjusted no lower than 22 degrees Celsius.
Source: expo2010.cn
Editor: Xu Xinlei