Expo 2010 is quite a ways off, but Shanghai's Songnan Town is gripped by Expo fever. It's home to dedicated Expo boosters who travel as far as the Himalayas to spread the word and have designed a giant writing pen-rocket souvenir.

The town in northeast Baoshan District is known for arts, crafts, culture and originality. It has taken World Expo 2010 to its heart.

Vicente Loscertales, secretary general of the Bureau of International Expositions, has praised Songnan residents' zeal and contributions.

Ten residents have just returned from Hong Kong where they campaigned for the Expo and fueled enthusiasm. It was part of the Expo tour that the residents came up with and organized themselves.

In the past three years, Songnan residents have left their footprints in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hainan provinces and other regions. They have campaigned from neighboring regions to the slopes of Mt Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

In 2006, the chief booster Wang Weiping waved a banner with the signatures of Expo enthusiasts as he trekked in the Himalayas.

On their way, Wang and others stopped in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and cheered on the Expo in the public square in front of the Potala Palace.

According to regulations, any public gatherings must be approved by authorities three days in advance. But Lhasa authorities waived the rules since Wang and others were on a tight schedule.

Even on short notice, more than 200 middle school students showed up and wrote their names on the Expo flag that was Everest-bound.

Wang runs the Website www.ooooocn.com, first set up to promote China's 2008 Olympics bid. The site now promotes the 2010 World Expo Shanghai.

The Website offers clips of local and nationwide reports and pictures of the event. CNN and The Associated Press have both featured Songnan's Expo boosters.

In 2002, the Shanghai Expo Bureau set up the Songnan Town Correspondence Office of the official Website - the city's first correspondence office to cover promotions by local residents.

Songnan residents have come up with distinctive ideas to promote the grand world's fair.

Wang and four artists invented a huge "Expo writing pen." The 7.13-meter-long pen - shaped like a traditional ink brush - is the world's longest pen, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

It's designed like China's Long March-2C rocket. The idea behind it is the combination of science, philosophy and elements of traditional Chinese style.

For the rocket-shaped pen, Songnan coin collector Hua Enhong donated 100 different coins from 100 countries and regions that are participating in the Expo. The coins were shaped into the letters "Expo 2010." Grouped around the longest pen are four shorter pens, Western ballpoint pens, half the length. They're like booster rockets.

"Next we are trying to make the Expo pen into a souvenir," Wang says. They have made a sample that won third prize in the Shanghai Inventions Contest late last year.

The new sample, about half a meter high, is made in traditional cloisonne work, mounted on a base in the shape of a ding, a ceremonial pot representing glory in ancient China.

(Shanghai Daily, March 10, 2008)