A middle school student gets ready for his show at the 9th China International Comics Games Expo. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

On Shanghai's subway trains over the weekend, it was not uncommon to see young people wearing brightly-colored wigs and dressed like maids, samurai warriors or other intriguing characters from popular comics and animated shows. Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

A young woman dresses as her favorite comic character to play her part in the 9th China International Comics Games Expo in Shanghai.Photo: Cai Xianmin/GT

The past weekend saw more than 100,000 people pouring into the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center where the 9th China International Comics Games Expo (CCG Expo) had been dazzling and entertaining from last Thursday to Monday.

On the city's subway trains over the weekend, it was not uncommon to see young people wearing brightly-colored wigs and dressed like maids, samurai warriors or other intriguing characters from popular comics and animated shows. They were all heading for the 9th CCG Expo. Many of the young participants, who are also middle school students in the city, rented their outfits or took pictures of the characters they wanted to become to tailors or dressmakers to get the precise costumes for the event.

The event's opening day on Thursday saw 35,000 visitors and over the following days the attendance records kept being broken. A total of 325 animation and game companies from home and abroad took part in the expo.

In the exhibition hall, visitors indulged in cosplay, enjoying getting inside the characters of their choice or looking around the stands and buying costumes and accessories. This year's expo, for the first time, allocated nearly 8,000 square meters for amateur comic enthusiasts to show off their own games and characters. Some of these pieces proved very popular and sales for some of the new amateur-inspired works were booming.