The pavilion had received some 2.7 million visitors by the middle of October, with a maximum daily attendance of 53,000 people.

Ji Shisan, founder of an organization called "Scientific Squirrels" , which aims to make science popular, said people could no longer expect the Expo to reveal "big surprises" such as the steam engine and the incandescent lamp when the Internet could inform the world about such kind of developments in a matter of minutes.

However, he said it was important to give the general public an opportunity to closely look at and experience high-end technologies.

The Shanghai World Expo has attracted a record of more than 71 million visitors. On one hand, while more people got the chance to see new technology, on the other, the large numbers of crowds made it impossible for people to seek out more information.

Chen Tuoyang, high school student from Tian Jin, said he had always been interested in robots. So the violin-playing robot in the Japanese Pavilion and the 6.5-meter animated baby robot "Miguelin" in the Spanish Pavilion made him very happy.

"I' m so excited. They reflect such a high level of technology," the 12-year-old said. But he didn' t find any descriptions of the robots and found it practically impossible to talk with the staff among the crowds.

Wu Min, head of the Shanghai World Expo Information Center of the Shanghai Library, said it took time for people to understand the scientific and technological elements at the Expo, adding that long-term effort would be required for that, even after the Expo concluded on Oct. 31.