Instead of joining the crowds attending the Shanghai Expo, I spent much of my summer preparing to serve as a chaperone for a group of college students traveling to India earlier this month on a two-week study tour.

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Since then, two events, the Beijing Olympics later that year and the Shanghai World Expo of 2010, might have served as coming-out parties for a rising China.

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Despite the hustle below of tourists in town for the Shanghai Expo, all was quiet and comfortable in here no surprises.

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The revision came days before the opening of the six-month Shanghai World Expo, which organizers expect will draw more than 70 million people.

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From May China will be visited by a series of foreign leaders going to the World Expo in Shanghai.

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In the meantime, if we don't think about the larger implications, we can all enjoy the benefits of Beijing officials overdoing it at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai.

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We raised our profile by making donations to government programmes such as the Shanghai Expo, and the "Go West" programme to develop the interior of the country.

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We do see multitudes of youth taking part in causes, such as leaving school and work to volunteer in aid of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims, or volunteering to support the 2008 Beijing Olympics or the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

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