Officials with the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) hailed Expo Shanghai Online as a "revolutionary landmark practice" at the 146th BIE conference in Paris on Tuesday local time.

Expo Shanghai Online [en.expo2010]

Thumbs up for the virtual version of the real Expo also came from representatives present at the conference after the organizer delivered a report and broadcast a video on the program.

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Expo Shanghai Online, one of the highlights of next year's Expo, allows visitors to tour the 2010 World Expo site and many of the event's pavilions with a simple mouse click from the comfort of their own homes.

Its Chinese version has already gone live, while the English version will be launched at the beginning of next year.

Visitors to the site can take a virtual tour of dozens of pavilions now. Other pavilions will be opened gradually on the Website, which will be updated every two weeks.

To date, a total of 217 participants have agreed to put the contents of their pavilions online.