Shanghai is developing a plan to line up accommodations outside
the city along with rooms in local private homes to solve a hotel
shortage that could run up to 200,000 beds a night during the 2010
World Expo.
Some 70 million visitors are expected from May to October during
the Expo year, and despite an aggressive hotel expansion program,
there will be far from enough rooms for everyone, city officials
acknowledged this week.
"Our government is considering the use of hotels in other
Yangtze Delta cities to handle the surplus of visitors," said Huang
Yaocheng, deputy director of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo
Coordination.
The extension of Shanghai's magnetic-levitation train line to
the Expo site and on to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province will make it
feasible for visitors to stay outside the city, he said.
The city also plans to nearly triple the number of expressways
linking Shanghai to neighboring provinces.
The city is seeking to provide additional accommodations through
a bed-and-breakfast-type program that allows travelers to stay with
families living near the Expo site.
(Shanghai Daily June 24, 2006)
