World Expo Shanghai has chosen an imaginary character as its mascot

The mascot "Hai Bao" debuts at the unveiling gala at Shanghai Grand Stage

The mascot "Hai Bao" debuts at the unveiling gala at Shanghai Grand Stage

World Expo Shanghai has chosen a ""(people) shaped imaginary character as its mascot as the blue little person last night debuted at the unveiling gala at Shanghai Grand Stage.

The mascot "Haibao," which means the "treasure of the seas," is another Expo symbol created from Chinese character following the Expo emblem in the shape of (world).

With the falling of the dominoes as well as the magnificent sound and light effect, the image of Expo mascot was showed in a surprisingly eye-catching way as the organizers promised.

More than 100 kinds of licensed product of Haibao were available in five authorized outlets in the city as soon as the mascot was unveiled. The products include toys, stationeries and garment, most of which are about 100 yuan (US$13.57).

As most of the mascot of World Expo, Haibao was an imaginary object which created from the Chinese character "" meaning people. The mascot manifests a "people-oriented" sprit and tells the public "people" the foundation to build a better life, the organizers explained.

The structure of this Chinese character, in which two strokes support each other, showed a concept that building a harmonious society need the efforts of all the people.

The image of the mascot is simple and easy to remember. Though it is a single mascot, with the different motions and costumes, it could also have various appearances, the organizers said.

The blue color represents the water, which also speaks that Haibao is from a costal city Shanghai.

The organizers defined Haibao as a confident, lovely, happy, witty and lively creature. Its hair is like the wave of the sea; its motion shows his generosity and hospitality; and his smile welcomes visitors all over the world.

The final winner is selected out of 26,655 entries from the four-month worldwide public solicitation for the mascot idea which was launch on January 17.

An 11-man selection jury chose the idea of a local designing company-Yokan Corporate Identity- to use the Chinese character as the mascot.

The 11 judges are the experts of arts, design, culture, sales and cartoon, from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as Japan, Italy and Portugal. The whole selection process, notarized by official institutions, is objective and fair, the organizers said.

The revising jury led by local designer Longtu Shaw then revised the original entry into the current mascot after a three-month discussion.

The mascot design was passed on the Fifth Meeting of Expo's Organizing Committee presided by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi on September 24.

Instead of asking designated teams to create the mascots, like most of the other World Expos and Olympics, the organizers launched a public solicitation to hear what common people think.

The organizers dispatched eight teams to travel around more than 50 cities in China and across the world. It also did a door-to-door promotion to over 80,000 people, asking them to submit ideas for the Expo mascot.

Among the 26,655 entries to the Expo, the youngest person to submit an entry was only three years old, and the oldest was 83.