Foreign visitors with a transit visa in Shanghai should be able to stay in the city for one week instead of 48 hours during the Shanghai Expo period in 2010, the senior official of the Expo organizing body suggested yesterday.

Hong Hao, director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, suggested Shanghai extend the transit visa in Shanghai at the open-door meeting of the Shanghai delegation at the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress.

A transit visa is a temporary short period visa. It is used for travelers that have a connecting flight in Shanghai, but who have some time to visit the city between flights. Travelers can apply for the visa at Pudong International Airport after landing.

The policy will give foreign visitors sufficient time to travel around, which will boost the tourism industry in the Yangtze Delta Region, Hong said.

It is important to enlarge the Expo influence and share the Expo opportunity with neighboring provinces, Hong said.

World Expo Shanghai, to be held between May 1 and October 31 in 2010, has attracted 196 countries and international organizations, already breaking the record of 177 that the Hanover Expo set in 2000.

The organizers are expecting more than 70 million visitors to visit the city during the six-month event, among which 5 percent should come from overseas.

Also today, Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co Ltd launched a poll for the "Expo Harmony Tower," which will be renovated from a chimney at an old power plant at the Expo site.

"We would like to let people know about this project through the survey, and as the construction company, we would like to enhance the openness and public participation for this key project," said an official with Shanghai World Expo Land Holding Co Ltd.

The survey is available on www.expo2010china.com in Chinese.

Questions in the poll include: is it meaningful to renovate the chimney, is Expo Harmony Tower a suitable name, or have you seen such a structure before?

The 165-meter chimney, built in 1985, at the Puxi side of the Expo site along the Huangpu River in the Nanshi Power Plant, will be transformed into a 201-meter-tall Expo Harmony Tower.

The 110-year old Nanshi Power Plant, closed in September last year, was the oldest power plant in China.

(Shanghai Daily March 7, 2008)