Shanghai opens World Expo

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

Shanghai has spent £35 billion on building the site and hugely upgrading its infrastructure.

"The government will spend whatever money it takes. For the leadership, it's worthwhile," said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

However, after a rocky week of trial openings at the site, Shanghai has already faced torrid criticism from early visitors, who complained about the length of the queues at the site and the absence of any affordable food. "It was not that fun, very inconvenient," said one retired woman, who would only give her name as Mrs Cai.

The crush at many of the pavilions, coupled with the slipperiness of the pavements on the site in the rain, also left 500 people needing medical attention in the trial week.

Organisers at the site, which spans the same area as 1,000 football pitches, said they had responded to the criticism by opening cheap food concessions and installing more rubbish bins, umbrellas for shade and benches.

However, the Chinese authorities have still had to censor internet forums to wipe away criticism of the event. Thousands of comments on popular Chinese websites were erased to save face.

The Expo has also been accompanied by an enormous security operation, with the local government determined to keep an iron grip on Shanghai for the entire six-month duration of the event.

As Shanghai prepared for last night's celebrations, locals living near the site were told to return to their homes in the early afternoon and stay put. The local information hot line also had clear advice that the best place to watch the extravaganza was at home, on television.

President Hu Jintao, who watched the spectacle from a special platform alongside Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, and Lee Myung-bak, the president of Korea, said he was confident the world would "witness a successful, splendid and unforgettable World Expo".

Before the display, 10,000 VIPs were treated to a gala show starring Jackie Chan, the actor, Lang Lang, China's most prominent concert pianist, and Andrea Bocelli, the Italian opera singer.

Just after 9pm, the normally muddy waters of the Huangpu were turned bright red by a combination of high-powered laser beams and 6,000 luminescent floating spheres. The 500 speakers that played music including Beethoven's Ode to Joy required the power of an entire district power plant.

Shanghai had previously promised to hold a restrained opening ceremony, appropriate for the austerity of a post-financial crisis world. However, Mr Atkins said that the organisers of the event were unable to contain their exuberance.

"That idea pretty much went out of the window," he said. "They may have undersold it a bit," he added, laughing. Instead, 260ft-high fountains were shot from water jets before the entire night sky was turned to day by the brightness of the explosions.

David Atkins, the Australian impresario who produced the show, said: "It is the biggest pyrotechnics show ever. In terms of the amount of fireworks and the lasers, no one has ever done anything like it," he added.

Mr Atkins also masterminded the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and for the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Telegraph