Parades
More than 900 parades involving 23 floats will be staged at the Expo site through the 184-day event.
Three routes have been designed, covering 2.6 kilometers in total. Two will be in the Pudong New Area, the main venue of the Expo site, and one will be in Puxi, passing by corporate pavilions.
The 920 parades, five daily on average, are expected to attract 27.6 million visitors.
Route 1: Global culture, joyful gathering in harmony
The first route covers 1,800 meters on Bocheng Road, west of the Expo Boulevard. It is the biggest among the three. The parade involves 200 performers and 12 floats. Two will be staged daily. Each will take 75 minutes. It will feature music performances, dances, costumes and fireworks to present a happy multi-cultural gathering in harmony.
Route 2: Science and technology leads towards the future
The second route covers about 800 meters on the Longhua Road E. in the Puxi zone of the Expo site. The team comprises 150 performers and seven floats. Two will be staged daily. Each will take 60 minutes.
Robot shows and floats envisaging future cities will be featured. The night parade will help disperse crowds when the site closes.
Route 3: Chinese culture, classic displays
The third parade will also proceed from west to east on Bocheng Road, involving 200 performers and four floats. Only one will be staged in the daytime through the Expo, which will take 60 minutes. It will feature national pavilion day activities and performances from China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
Shaolin Martial Arts Show
The Shaolin martial arts show is an original performance designed for the Expo. Four shows will be staged daily from July to August at the Entertainment Hall of the Expo site, each for 45 minutes. The kung fu gala aims to present the aesthetic and philosophical values of monks of Shaolin Temple through an innovative stage performance that combines Shaolin kung fu and modern dancing.
The mix of martial arts, acrobatics, dancing and magic tricks helps create special visual effects and spice up audience's interest in the stage performance.
Meanwhile, more than 50 Shaolin monks, including young and senior ones, will perform Shaolin boxing and hard qigong (a kind of deep breathing exercises that can make the belly or the top of head invulnerable to knife and sword) four times each day during the 184-day event at outdoor squares around the Expo site.
Stage Show CHA
I. Introduction
CHA, a spectacular stage show exclusively designed for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, will have its world premiere during Expo. Taking Chinese tea as its theme, CHA integrates martial arts, magic, stunts, dancing and other art forms, representing Chinese traditional tea culture in an artistic way.
During Expo, CHA will be performed in the Entertainment Hall four times a day from May 1 to June 30. Each session lasts 45 minutes.
II. Three features of CHA
·Brand New Show
CHA, the spectacular stage show designed exclusively for World Expo 2010 Shanghai China, will have its world premiere during Expo.
·Acrobatic Show
CHA unifies traditional Chinese acrobatic arts with Western visual arts into a harmonious fusion, making traditional acrobatics full of fashionable energy. CHA is made up of more than 10 acrobatics shows, 10 magic shows, six martial arts shows and five dancing shows. With the help of multimedia technologies, a fantastic atmosphere will be created for the audience to enjoy an audio-visual feast.
·Tea Culture Show
Tea is an important symbol in Chinese culture. CHA vividly depicts the close relationship of tea and people through the ages. Via allusions, props, scenes, music and costumes, CHA celebrates flavor, poetry and the “Zen” of tea with symbolic performances.
III. Introduction of CHA Team
CHA has selected elites in Chinese stage productions and top acrobats. They are full of experience working with world-class teams.
Director, playwriter: Li Xining
Wudang Martial Arts Show
Wudang Taoist Kung Fu Academy has designed an original martial arts performance for the Expo. The 30-minute kung fu show "Wudang: Taiji and Dao" will be staged from July to September at the Group Level Squares of the Expo site. Three shows are scheduled daily. The Taoists will wrap boxing, swordsmanship and stick work into the story of the legendary Zhang Sanfeng, who is believed to have achieved immortality and founded the Wudang Taoist Temple in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
The show aims to demonstrate Wudang martial arts and promote Chinese national culture and spirits. It will help visitors understand and cherish the Taoism culture and its impact on humanity. Wudang will dispatch 60 Taoists aged 20 to 30 to the Expo site.
City Square Art Festival
Basic Facts Twenty-two street performance groups around the world will perform at the waiting areas of some popular pavilions as well as other areas with huge crowds to disperse visitor flow and create fun.
Highlights
Highlight 1: Innovation
Innovation is the soul of a city's culture. Street performers will present splendid shows full of imagination by using novel props. Visitors will experience the innovative charms of street performances.
Highlight 2: Joy
The humorous and interactive elements in street shows will make visitors enjoy the fun at the site while waiting to enter pavilions.
Highlight 3: Interaction
Street performance is flexible in its form, which has many different types and is mobile. It has no specific requirements for the number of performers. Even one performer can present a show.
Paradise for dreams and discovery
During the Expo, Dock 1 of Jiangnan Square on Puxi site will be a paradise for children and adolescents with the performances of activities relating to the theme of dreams and discovery for children. With Haibao acting as leading characters, performances encompass puppet shows, shadow plays, child dramas and multi-media shows. All these activities will inspire children’s potential of discovery and creation, leading to inner happiness.
(1) Rod and Stick Puppet Show “Journey to the West”
The show gets its material from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West.” With Monkey King as the main character, the show interprets classic contents and stories of the novel in a complete new way by performing traditional arts of rod and stick puppets. The show aims at popularizing “Journey to the West” among children, which is a blend and mutual promotion among contemporary popular ideas, classic culture and traditional arts.
Rod and Stick Puppet Show “Journey to the West”
(2) Shadow Play “Romance of Three Kingdoms”
The shadow play is based on the Chinese classic “Romance of Three Kingdoms” with Zhuge Liang as the main character. The show interprets classic contents and stories of the novel in a complete new way by performing traditional arts of shadow plays. Through the play, children are expected to realize the importance of motivation, perseverance, strategy and confidence and develop positive ambitions. 
Shadow Play “Romance of Three Kingdoms”
(3) Child Drama "Magic Map of Sesame Street"
The multimedia children's musical drama of "Magic Map of Sesame Street" acts on characters of the famous American TV program “Sesame Street” and Haibao, mascot of Shanghai Expo. The play is not only entertaining, but also informative and interactive with its high-tech stage sets. It showcases modern lives in China where imaginative children face the future with rich exploring spirits, in accordance with the theme of Shanghai Expo. The child drama is aimed at increasing international cultural exchange and further development of Sino-US relationships.
Child Drama "Magic Map of Sesame Street"Theme shows 'Windows of City'
an artist's rendition of "Windows of City"The thematic show "Windows of City" in Expo Shanghai will be closely linked to the theme of "City," representing the city's facets, showing colorful urban life and stimulating audience's endless imagination. "Windows of City" tells a story of love and harmony with music and dance. People will feel urbanites' warm hearts and care concealed under the indifferent urban appearance in 30 minutes.
The thematic show "Windows of City" of Expo Shanghai is at Zone C02 of the Houtan Square within the Pudong section of the Expo site.
The pavilion of this show is about 105 meters long, 20 meters high and 72 meters wide. It can accommodate more than 2,000 spectators. It will be the biggest temporary indoor theatre in the Expo site. Its components can also be easily dissembled and rebuilt at another location.
This show is a brainchild of arts and media groups in Shanghai and Taipei, in collaboration with international talents. Using the most advanced large-scale stage design, "Windows of City" will bring you a spectacular show with multimedia technology. Artists of this show are from different nations, and together with different forms of dance style, it will reflect rich implications.
"Windows of City" is a joint production of Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group and Taipei Arts International Association.
