Expositions in Asia: A SPECIAL REPORT

Some Asian cities will move mountains and sea to build a convention center. Literally. Take the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which just completed a 1.67-million-square-foot addition on land reclaimed from Victoria Harbour--at a cost of $620 million U.S. dollars. Or Kobe, Japan. Devastated by an earthquake in 1995, the port city was able to open a new international convention center two years later on an island made of fill from nearby mountains.