In an online interview in Beijing last week, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng clarified that the cost of hosting 2010 World Expo, scheduled to open in May, would be about 28.6 billion yuan rather than the rumored 400 billion yuan.

Whatever the cost, there will always be people in Shanghai asking what that money, plus the spending on Expo-related infrastructure, including the building of new roads, repaving old ones and the rebuilding or white washing of many city landmarks, will buy for Shanghai.

To be sure, a part of the total spending can be recovered in ticket sales and the collection of addition taxes from the projected increase in tourist spending on hotels, entertainment and shopping. But the total cost in financial and human resource terms can never be fully recovered, even by the most optimistic income estimates.