Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai Expo organizers unveiled the designs of 23 boats and 22 new ferries for visitors at a transport bidding meeting.

The 45 boats will provide transport for about seven million visitors via Huangpu River during the Expo in 2010, about 10 percent of the total traffic into the Expo site, the Shanghai Port Authority said.

The authority also announced seven Expo "watergates" along the river - Nanpu Bridge Port, Shiliupu Port, Dongchang Road Port, Liujiazui Port, Qichang Road Port, Qinhuangdao Port and Ningguo Road Port.

The designs for the boats were selected by public bidding. Ten river transport companies won the bids, including Qiangsheng Waterborne Travel Ltd and Shanghai Ba-shi International Travel Ltd.

The designs will all highlight the "green Expo concept," featuring solar battery and waste oil collection systems, to illustrate the theme of Expo 2010 - Better City, Better Life.

The 10 companies have to submit the Expo transport boats design blueprint by March 15, said the Chief of Shanghai Port Authority Chen Xiuping.

All the boats will be built by January 31, 2010.

Meanwhile, the World Expo exhibition national tour makes its first stop of 2008 in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province today.

Kunming hosted a Horticultural Exposition in 1999, a kind of specialized World Expo.

The Kunming Expo was very successful, said Zhu Yonglei, deputy director of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, at a press conference yesterday.

The Yunnan government is preparing to take part in the Shanghai Expo. Yunnan is expected to decide the theme of their exhibition and submit the theme statement by the end of February, said Guo Wudai, deputy director of the construction department of Yunnan Province.

Minority ethnic groups are a special feature of Yunnan, and they will also become a feature of Yunnan's exhibition at the Shanghai Expo, said Guo.

Yunnan has 25 minority ethnic groups each with more than 5,000 people.

Yunnan also wants to showcase its efforts in keeping a harmonious relationship between city and nature as Yunnan has world-renowned tourism spots, such as Lijiang and Shangri-la, said Guo.

The free exhibition will be held in the Jinma Biji Square in the center of Kunming City until January 14.

Lectures about Shanghai Expo and World Expo history will also be held during the week in Yunnan Library and Yunnan University.

The Expo touring exhibition has also stopped in Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Guangzhou, attracting a total of about 600,000 visitors.