被国际展览局秘书长洛塞泰斯誉为“世博会史上革命性创举”的网上上海世博会(www.expo.cn)将于5月1日全面上线。上海世博局副局长朱咏雷透露，4月30日晚上11点以后，网上世博会将先于实体世博会全面“开馆”，网民可以先睹为快。自去年11月12日上线以来，进入网上世博园区的人次累计约2500万。全面上线后的网上世博会将提供更丰富的内容，包括园区内152个独立建筑的外观、200多个浏览型展馆、近100个体验性展馆以及“一轴四馆”等13个组织方展馆。届时，网上世博会“未来之城”也将正式上线。在角色扮演的互动社区里，参观者不仅可以“触摸”设计精美的展品，与其他参观者交流、结伴共游世博园，还可以组队完成吉祥物海宝布置的游戏任务，获取奖品。
Expo Shanghai Online, an innovative feature of Expo 2010 Shanghai, will officially go live on May 1, the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination announced on Thursday.
The bilingual website, www.expo.cn, which appears in both English and Chinese, offers a 3D virtual tour of the Expo Garden as well as an interactive role-playing game, The City of the Future.
Both the virtual tour and the game are free of charge, though users will need to download an installation package before they can use the services.
Expo Shanghai Online provides the first-ever virtual tour of a World fair.
"Expo Shanghai Online is a revolutionary creation in the history of world exhibitions," said Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales, secretary-general of the Bureau International des Expositions.
Since the trial version of Expo Shanghai Online appeared on Nov 12, 2009, 25 million users have taken the online tour.
The official version of Expo Shanghai Online is more diverse and attractive than the trial one, said Zhu Yonglei, deputy head of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.
In the virtual tour of the Expo Garden, visitors will be able to observe the appearance of 152 architectural structures, explore the inside of more than 200 exhibition halls and experience more than 100 interactive displays, Zhu said.
Online visitors can also gather stamps from hundreds of pavilions on an Expo passport, a popular innovation of Expo 67 Montreal.
In contrast to the difficulty of queuing to gather a collection of stamps in an actual Expo Garden, the ease of clicking on a site to collect stamps is regarded as one of the advantages of Expo Shanghai Online.
With the interactive online game The City of the Future, users can converse with celebrities, including basketball player Yao Ming and actor Jacky Chan.
The game server is capable of allowing 10,000 users to be logged in at the same time, enabling players to form squads and fulfill assignments to win prizes, including admission to the actual Expo Garden and Belgian chocolate.
Tencent and China Telecom, technical supporters of Expo Shanghai Online, said they are able to guarantee safe and stable service for visitors to Expo Shanghai Online.
