Expo 2010 — a six-month event starting May 1 in Shanghai, the largest city in China — will showcase the recent economic development and internationalization of the world's most populous country, once a revolutionary nation that directly challenged the Western political and economic order. The event's theme of "Better City — Better Life" expresses China's hope of improving it people's quality of life.
The economic and social situation surrounding Shanghai Expo, which comes so soon after the Beijing 2008 Olympics, is somewhat like a replay of Japan's position during its period of high economic growth. Japan's gross domestic product grew at an average rate of about 9 percent from fiscal 1956 to fiscal 1973. It hosted the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964 and Osaka Expo in 1970.