Although the exhibit halls open at 9 a.m., the committee opened the expo site an hour earlier to give visitors more time to look around the 250,000-square-meter site.

The committee said it will continue to open the site at 8 a.m. on weekends and national holidays.

Cho said the committee expects the daily number of visitors to reach up to 250,000 during weekends.

“We have internal plans on how to handle up to 300,000 visitors, and we will decide on the maximum number of visitors we can accept,” he said.

About 1.1 million admission tickets have been sold so far through advanced reservation.

Some of the main events on Saturday included the opening of the United Nations Pavilion, performances by Indonesia and Cambodia, and the Big Wave Concert featuring K-pop musicians Wonder Girls, Dynamic Duo and Simon D in the evening.

The Aquarium and the DSME Marine Robot Pavilion were the most popular attractions, with the afternoon's exhibits fully booked by visitors at around 3 p.m. 

Some of the spectators, however, found more could be done with the Expo guidance and the amenities could be improved.

“I wish they provided information near the entrance about what to expect at the country pavilions,” said Lee Soo-jin, who came from Daegu.

“A few of the national pavilions had interesting contents, but most of them seemed to be aimed at selling souvenirs.”

Chung In-seop, who traveled from Jeonju, was disappointed at a restaurant because it didn’t accept credit cards.

“I paid 40,000 won for the admission today because it is the opening day, and I don’t think they are fully ready yet. How can a restaurant not take credit cards?” he said. Expo tickets are sold at 33,000 won per person on normal days.

(sophie@heraldcorp.com)



By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)