Corporate and institutional buyers were the first to get a look at the tickets for Shanghai's 2010 World Expo: passes that are slightly smaller than a credit card but packed with the latest in anti-counterfeiting technology.

The Expo organizer, which unveiled the tickets yesterday to mark the 400-day countdown to the opening of the World's Fair, sold 18,000 of the passes to corporations and local governments.

The Expo ticket measures 54 by 98 millimeters and comes in nine categories, each with a different color to distinguish its price level. All feature Haibao, the mascot, and the Expo logo and theme: "Better City, Better Life." The types of ticket and the price are written in English and Chinese.

The organizer has also designed a commemorative ticket especially for overseas Chinese and will issue special tickets for other groups and sponsors as well.

Every ticket uses nine anti-forgery technologies developed by the Shanghai Banknote Printing and Minting Plant and will have an electronic chip imbedded.

Fake tickets will be easy to spot, said Zhang Shucang, deputy director of the printing company.

The surface of the Expo ticket will have a distinctive feel, and the colors on the edges of the tickets will change when the cards are turned, Zhang said.

Chinese and foreign corporations and organizations that want at least 30 tickets can now begin buying from the four domestic ticket agents and nine outside the Chinese mainland. The agents have opened their hotlines, Websites and outlets around the world.

The standard single-day ticket will cost 130 yuan (US$18.98), and a peak-day ticket 170 yuan until June 30, the end of the first sales phase. Both are 30 yuan less than the prices to be charged during the Expo.

The public will be able to start buying tickets on July 1.

The Shanghai Overseas Chinese Service Center, the Shanghai Urban Construction Group, the government of Taicang City in Jiangsu Province and Jiashan County in Zhejiang Province bought the first batch of tickets yesterday.

China Eastern Airlines, a global partner of the Expo, and Huahong Group, Shenergy Group and Yili Group, senior sponsors for the event, also bought tickets.

Source: Shanghai China

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