Expo Faces
Competition for jobs at the Expo Center is so intense that interns are holding competitions in their down time to stay sharp and gain an edge.
Over the past six years, the random process has enabled Wu to produce more than 3,000 slogans and 2,000 brush paintings for the Shanghai Expo.
Like any monster event that successfully woos celebrities into the spotlight, the Shanghai Expo will be no exception as it rolls out the red carpet for popular stars including Jackie Chan, Yao Ming and Lang Lang.
Recruiter Shi Lei sees the 2010 Shanghai Expo as a potential catalyst for companies to embrace greener technologies and reduce their carbon emissions, while also creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Everyone has the ability to affect positive change regardless of the obstacles that life has thrown along the way.
For foreign students like African-American Tristan Hampton, working as an expo volunteer provides the perfect platform to network for jobs in a fiercely competitive environment, while also giving him behind-the-scenes access to hidden facets of Chinese society.
For Reinhard Kropf and Siv Helene Stangeland, the Norwegian couple who designed this year's $22.8-million (156 million yuan) Norway pavilion, nature holds the key to a better life.
The award-winning film Mountain Patrol: Kekexili (2004) tracks the heroic efforts of a group of Tibetans who face the threat of starvation while attempting to save the endangered Tibetan antelope from hunters.
Though he can spout tongue twisters in fluent Mandarin at speeds warped enough to boggle the minds of Chinese, don't expect such performances to be routine for "the most famous foreigner in China" at next year's Shanghai Expo.
It doesn't matter what threads you wear to the Shanghai World Expo, China's ceramics-smashing Buddhist monks will have you wearing an "iron vest" in no time.
