Rush of visitors to Expo in a lull

SHANGHAI - The Expo Garden has seen a sharp decrease in the number of visitors this week, but organizers said the drop is temporary and visitors would increase again with the National Day holiday around the corner.

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More than 223,000 visitors entered the Expo Garden on Sept 2. It was the third day that the number of visitors hovered around 200,000. The high on Aug 21 reached more than 560,000 visitors.

According to Expo organizers, the drop in group visitors and the start of a new semester led to a dramatic decrease in visitors during the first few days of the week.

Meanwhile, the extreme weather forecast for Shanghai also made some people cancel trips to the Expo Garden in the past few days.

Some citizens are now recognizing a good opportunity for a relatively easy tour in the Expo Garden, following the drop in temperature and visitor volume.

Queuing times outside some popular pavilions have shortened significantly.

It may take visitors less than one hour to get into some famous European pavilions such as the Italian Pavilion. At peak times, it had taken three hours to get in.

"I never imagined I could get into the Italian Pavilion in less than one hour," said Wang Yu, a visitor in the Expo Garden.

The queuing time outside the Saudi Arabia Pavilion has been shortened to five hours, compared to eight to nine hours during the peak days in past four months.

Comfortable weather conditions have also enticed some seniors to plan their trips to Shanghai.

"The season is suitable for a tour in the Expo Garden," said Sun Yufeng, a 75-year-old senior from Anhui province. "It is a good place to get some knowledge about the world."

Expo organizers estimated that the number of visitors to the Expo Garden would remain stable in the coming two weeks.

The number of visitors may surge again after the middle of September during China's seven-day National Day holiday and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Shanghai Oriental Post also reported that some 18 million Expo tickets still had not been used by the end of August.

"We expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of visitors in October," said Chen Xianjing, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.