If someone manages to grow a record size pumpkin or if a pizza joint for some strange reason makes the biggest pizza in the history of mankind, the world media will follow up on the case. Can you imagine then the media attention that will be focused on the biggest event of this year - Expo 2010 Shanghai?

Needless to say, our Radio86 journalist team will be at the center of everything that takes place in Shanghai, reporting on the fascinating and multidimensional events of the World Exposition in 10 different languages. We will provide our readers and listeners videos, interviews, stories and news straight from this much-awaited event.

The Shanghai Expo kicks off on May 1st and lasts until the end of October. As the name indicates, Expo 2010 Shanghai is a multicultural event. More than 220 countries and international organizations will take part at the exhibition. According to the organizers, almost 20 million admission tickets were already sold at the end of January. Altogether the event is estimated to attract up to 70 million visitors.

During the last decades, China has proven its innovative ability and its economic determination. It has transformed into a modern state that can be described as the fuel and driving force in an otherwise anemic world economy. Economy is not all that Expo 2010 Shanghai is about, though. The intention is to gather the worlds multifaceted existence, its innumerable cultural dimensions and its varied experiences in one city.

The official Expo 2010 Shanghai theme is "Better City, Better Life". This calls attention to the explosive urbanization movement on a global scale. In other words, it is a matter of developing mutual innovation in the context of technology, to seek an answer to the problematic sociological questions that all of us will have to deal with on our overpopulated planet. Shanghai is the laboratory and the world, the test tube.

Expo 2010 Shanghai is not only about heavy topics such as strict strategic economic planning or sociological debate. The event will also serve as a "design forum" for the participants. All countries are to present the most characteristic elements of their homelands and their specific culture. The sky is the limit in Shanghai, both for you and for us on Radio86.

One could consider the Expo 2010 Shanghai as a global celebration where everyone sits down around the same fire, shows the world a glimpse of who they really are and offer each other their knowledge and cultural wealth. China, especially Shanghai, has the honor of being the Master of Ceremony.

Radio86 journalists will be at that fireside during this global meet. If you don't have the chance to be there, no problem, we'll be there for you. Get ready for the most anticipated and extensive cultural event of the year – Expo 2010 Shanghai!

Edited by: Geni Raitisoja