Organizers of Shanghai’s World Expo have been holding trial runs this week. Officials now estimate the 6-month event, themed “Better City, Better Life”, will attract up to 100m visitors, 95% of them Chinese. Shanghai has spent $58.6b preparing for the Expo – more than was spent on the Beijing Olympics. Collected here are photographs of last-minute preparations in Shanghai as they prepare to welcome the world this weekend.

world expos are so weird. what is on display / sale here? competing 70s-era utopias?

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