At the entrance to the crown-shaped China Pavilion, 9-year-old Tang Yaoyu from neighboring Jiangsu Province was among the lucky few to get the opportunity to talk to a robot shaped like the Expo mascot, Haibao.
"Smile, Haibao!" The boy said.
"Ha-ha-ha," the robot replied.
The Haibao robot is also good at "poem solitaire," a game during which one person says the first few lines of a poem and the other recites the remaining part. Even with five ancient Chinese poems, the boy could not defeat the robot.
More than 30 Haibao robots are deployed at Shanghai's two international airports and at the entrances to major Expo venues, the first large-scale use of robots at a public event in China, according to Expo organizers.
The 1.55-meter-tall robots have touch screens on their chests to answer inquiries about the Expo in six languages, and they can even take photos for visitors.
