Owen Kelly: Window on a land of limitless diversity and endless fascination

In London in 1851, the Crystal Palace was the dominant building and its counterpart in Shanghai is the China Pavilion, which is bigger – and redder – than all the others.

It also appears to be the most popular with Chinese visitors. That is because it contains exhibits from all the provinces of China and, in this vast and diverse country, a province several hundred miles away is still part of the same family and, therefore, more intrinsically interesting than even the most far flung and exotic stranger.

Looking at the Chinese visitors you are struck by how various they are: people from rural areas with weather-beaten complexions and a down to earth approach to queue management; Shanghai sophisticates, with black polo necks and sharp haircuts; affluent young families, with children stoically queuing for two hours for the more popular pavilions. Many different dialects ring in your ears, reminding you that the standard Chinese pronunciation, Mandarin, still has some way to go to achieve universal usage.

Wandering the pavilions of the wealthy western countries, you see in the length of the queues and the coolness and swagger of the design and execution, that impressing others comes relatively easily. A contrast is the large, and largely empty, Africa pavilion.

Not only has the whole continent been put in one pavilion, the presentation is also a little hackneyed. At least to the practised eye of this particular woolly liberal. However, China has been open about its ambitions to obtain maximum levels of participation and maybe compromises have been necessary to achieve this.

Contrasting the inside to the outside, Shanghai street life must be among the most varied and exciting in the world. The city has been spruced up for the Expo, but economic growth had already done much to change it from the faded yet still faintly louche place that I first visited 28 years ago.

But corporate discipline has bitten Expo and a few big contractors control tightly the availability of food and drink. Inside, one yearns for a noodle stall or a kiosk selling "oil sticks", a Shanghai delicacy that consists of sticks of deep-fried batter.

Contrasts can be observed among the site workers, too. The Chinese service workers in practical, utilitarian clothes carry themselves with the same dignity as those you see on railways, hotels or anywhere else in this heavily-served economy.

The volunteers, counted in millions, wear the same T-shirts and loose tracksuits; all young and mustard keen. There are the many security staff – in several varieties, all in uniform. The Chinese staff in foreign pavilions are generally beautiful and there is a fascinating book to be written about the role of personal beauty in success in modern China. Then there are the westerners, in the main much more affluent than the Chinese and one or two of them holding your eye with a stare just slightly wild, after several years in this rapidly changing but wonderful country.

Expo is many things: festival, provider of a legacy for Shanghai and for China, statement, party, cultural event and, occasionally, a celebration of weirdness and difference. But in many ways it reflects the host country and China is a country of contrasts much, much greater than those to be observed at the microcosm and snapshot that is Expo 2010.

Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, writes in a personal capacity from the Shanghai Expo