SHANGHAI - Barbara Boyce rushed into the China National Pavilion on the first opening day of the Shanghai Expo Park, together with thousands of feverish domestic visitors.

"It's incredible and fantastic! I speak fast because I am too excited!" said Boyce, who is a development manager with the New Zealand China Business Council.

"There is a reason the China Pavilion is called 'Oriental Crown', and I have seen the diamonds in the crown," Boyce said.

"The pavilion shows the transformation from the country's ancient civilization to better city and better life in the modern world.

Scores of overseas tourists joined around 200,000 Expo visitors on Saturday to see the pavilions branded with each country's unique culture and history as well as to get better understanding of the city itself.

"Shanghai is so huge. The people and the architecture here are amazing," said Fredrick McCabe, a 42-year-old information technician with the Boeing Company, who brought his wife and two children from their hometown of Seattle.

"I hope to be enlightened by new technologies in the Expo," McCabe said.

The six-month event, which runs till October 31, is expected to attract 70 million visitors from home and abroad.

The Expo would not only educate, entertain and fascinate visitors, but would also spark the energies to build the cities of the future on some of its foundations, said Bureau of International Exhibitions Secretary General Vicente Gonzalea Loscertales at the site opening ceremony ?Saturday morning.

David Phan, 20, from Holland said his target sights during the opening day tour included the pavilions of Holland, China, Europe and Japan.

"I am trying to experience different cultures here, and to see how each country uses new technologies in their pavilions," said Phan, an exchange student at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

"The city is lovely too. Everything is open and I have a lot of fun here," said Phan, who has been in Shanghai for two and a half months.

While many domestic visitors complained about the crowds and the shortage of tickets for the China Pavilion, Boyce said it was an opportunity for foreigners to interact with local people.

"I thought it would be disappointing with so many people, but it is much better than I thought. I talked to them while queuing up, I learned Chinese from them and I took photos with them," Boyce said.

"There used to be many misunderstandings about China. I think many more foreigners should come to explore the country by themselves," she said.