OK, so the fireworks barrage that announced the opening of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo at the weekend might not actually have been audible around the world (though it sure felt that way to residents of Shanghai - some great pics from the Guardian here), but the Expo itself is making plenty of global headlines. In the first of an ongoing series of posts, we've rounded up some of the best coverage for you.

- Foreign Policy have an impressive slideshow up of various pavilions during construction and immediately prior to opening.

- The most authoratative voice on all things Expo has long been Shanghai-based writer Adam Minter. He has a new piece up at The Atlantic. That, too, features a neat slideshow.

- It was Minter who first tipped other journos off to the fact that the Iranian and North Korean pavilions were next door to one another. What he dubbed the "Axis of Evil Square" is now getting other foreign hacks all hot under the collar. Here's the Globe and Mail piece, another from the Daily Telegraph, and a video from CNN. Journalists, eh - never knowingly original.

- There's speculation over at Shanghaiist that the Dear Leader himself might make a vist to the North Korean pavilion. He's (unofficially) in China already.

- Speaking of dear leaders, Hu Jintao was in town to check out some of the pavilions prior to their official opening. Photos here.

- Hu might have been all smiles, but the big story seems to be just how ill-equipped the Expo Park is to handle the projected visitor count. On the opening day, officials closed the doors with 200,000 people inside. That might sound like a lot but, as the Daily Telegraph's Malcolm Moore notes, at that rate they'll end up with only half of their desired 70m attendees. (If you're so inclined, you can keep track of visitor numbers on a half-hourly basis here.) Both Moore and Minter have written about the long lines outside the most popular pavilions, and how potentially dangerous it is to have people standing in line in baking temperatures for upward of four hours. Quite how (indeed if) the Expo organizers will deal with this in the coming months remains to be seen.

- Another voice worth following is that of NPR's Louisa Lim. Here's her piece on the "mixed reviews" that have greeted the US Pavilion.

- And finally, a story that's starting to pick up some traction is the negative effect of the Expo on the city's burgeoning creative scene; a number of indie music gigs have been shut down, and some venues forced to close. The most impassioned voice on this subject is that of Shanghai-based blogger Andy Best who we interviewed a year or so ago.

More soon.

More Shanghai Expo 2010 related content on ChinaTravel.net:

How to buy Shanghai Expo tickets outside of China
Shanghai Expo: How to visit the Expo using the Metro
Shanghai Expo 2010: Expo 'soft opening' in pictures. The best and worst . . .
Cirque du Soleil's Shanghai Expo 2010 program details emerge