An inspection team from the Bureau International des Epositions (BIE) received an enthusiastic welcome on Wednesday from the citizens of Yeosu, South Jeolloa Province, which hopes to host the 2012 World Expo. The seven-member team led by the bureau's vice president Carmen Sylvain of Canada, were cheered along by over 40,000 citizens before visiting Yeosu City Hall, where they met South Jeolla Governor Park Joon-yung, Yeosu Mayor Oh Hyun-sup and citizens' representatives.
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A BIE inspection team enjoys an enthusiastic welcome from children and citizens on arrival at Yeosu City Hall on Wednesday.
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Stepping off their plane, the seven inspectors were presented with bunches of lowers from seven children in traditional Korean costumes and welcomed by some 150 citizens. Over 40,000 people lined the street from the airport to the City Hall. The welcoming crowds of the young and old waved the Korean national flag or Taegukgi, flags of BIE member countries and Expo flags, and chanted, "Expo Yeosu." The inspection team finally pressed the flesh along the 500-m section in front of the city hall and Ssangbong crossroads for over half an hour.
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Flag-waging citizens line the street from the Yeosu Airport to Yeosu City Hall to welcome a BIE inspection team on Wednesday.
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Citizens filling the median strip welcomed the seven inspectors waving pickets in a 70 cm space allocated to each of them. Seventy-plus professors and students from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies performed dances and songs in the traditional costumes of their seven countries. The inspection team walked the street where their names had been posted and talked with the citizens. Sylvain said she had never experienced such an enthusiastic welcome, and was ¡°unforgettably¡± impressed by it.
The head of a support group for the city¡¯s bid, Kim Yong-hwa, said, "We hope the citizens' welcome will impress the inspectors." The inspection team went on to the Hilton Namhae Gold and Spa Resort aboard a ferry boat while thousands of fireworks exploded in the sky. On Thursday, the team is scheduled to tour the port city and its coasts aboard helicopters and inspect the projected plot of the expo.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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