Most bystanders passing the Shanghai Expo construction site these days might try to visualize what the area along the Huangpu River will look like on May 1 when the world extravaganza is unveiled. To me, trying to envision the area after the six-month show is no less challenging.

City planners have already mapped out a post-exposition blueprint, which includes convention and exhibition facilities, theaters, high-end commercial and apartment towers and a small park. Some deputies to the just-concluded annual session of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body, proposed to turn the 5.28 sq-km site into a modern financial and trade hub.

Tapping the valuable land resources makes good business sense. In fact, much of the Shanghai Expo investment will be recouped from leasing the land to developers.