Organizers say they want to contribute to the national drive to build the region into an area with three bases and one hub - a grain production base, energy base, modern equipment and high technology base, and a transport hub.

To help the government reach that goal, this year's expo will concern itself with new energy, new materials, advanced technology, equipment manufacturing, environmental protection, modern agriculture, and tourism. Its themes are "Transforming the economy" and "Central China on the rise", with the focus primarily on project promotions, investment, and strategic discussions.

Three features of this expo are worth noting: the low carbon activities, the pilot programs for resource preservation development, and the attractive investment prospects.

Some of such activities are as follows:

The Mayors' Forum on Sustainable Development which will draw in mayors of major cities and heads of multinationals for a dialogue on sustainable development.

The Financial Forum on the Central China Development, which will cover ways to utilize international capital and benefiting from an international economic recovery.

The Global Trade Fairs, Forum on Trade with Taiwan, and the Forum on Central China under a Multilateral Trade System. These will all try to increase the region's trade and improve its trade position.

The Central Tourism Cooperation Forum is intended to find ways to coordinate use of tourist resources in the six provinces to steer the economy in the direction of more environmentally friendly development.

The Forum on Reform and Development of State-owned Enterprises, and Forum on Urban Intelligence both represent an effort to push the reforms and improve the quality of economic development.

The five previous expos have left a great legacy for their respective hosts and have left some big shoes to fill.

But, Shanxi has a lot to offer with its resources, long history, and culture. It dates as far back as 2,000 years and was known as Jin during the Warring States period. It covers a 156,000-square-kilometer area and has 35 million people.