More than 4,000 people visited the new World Expo Museum (WEM) during its opening day on May 1, and officials said the visitation quota for the first two weeks have already been met.

Inspired by the 2010 Shanghai World Expo which took place seven years ago, the WEM was created after more than three years of cooperation between the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

The facility, classified as the only official museum and documentation center authorized by the BIE, is the first international museum in China and the first to be dedicated to World Expos.

Located at the original site of the Shanghai Expo along the bank of the Huangpu River, WEM measures 40,000 square meters in size and is the biggest museum in the city's Puxi area. It includes eight permanent exhibition halls, three temporary exhibitions halls, a warehouse and a 4D cinema.

The eight permanent exhibition halls were co-designed by Carlos Diaz, a Spanish designer who is a consultant for BIE, and Yu Li, deputy director of the Construction Office of the World Expo Museum, and his team. Each of these halls feature distinctive themes and currently house 18,784 objects showcased during previous World Expos.

According to Diaz, the museum is a modern showroom that integrates state-of-the-art technologies, original music and exhibits that tell of the rich history and atmosphere of the World Expos.

"The refined model of Crystal Palace shows the spectacular Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and the movie on the screen shows the audience at the Expos held in Paris," said Diaz. "The holographic theater in La Ville Spectacle in Paris shows the urbanization of the city under the influence of the six World Expos it held."

"We have drawn inspirations from the 2010 Expo in Shanghai and reproduced an animated version of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival on a giant screen to highlight the Chinese characteristics of the museum," Yu added.

The animated version of the ancient painting from Song Dynasty (960-1279) was a highly popular exhibit at the China Pavilion during the 2010 Expo in Shanghai.

The World Expo Museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm. Admission to the museum is free through the end of June but visitors are advised to make a reservations at www.expo-museum.cn.

Cheng Si contributed to this story.

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