Just as Venere.com can pick up high-quality hotel rooms for $100 a night (and less) during the upcoming Shanghai World's Fair (May through October 2010, see my recent post about that major travel event), FlyChina (www.flychina.com) can get you similar bargains in airfares to Shanghai -- provided you act fairly soon.

FlyChina -- it's been around since 1997 -- is an impressive specialist whose sole purpose is to find heavily discounted airfares between 16 U.S. cities and every major destination in China. It searches the fares of eight different trans-Pacific airlines, but almost always discovers that China Eastern Airlines undercuts the rest. For travel during the current month of August, 2009 (for instance), China Eastern Airlines will fly you round-trip between Los Angeles and Shanghai for an unbeatable $607, including all government taxes and fees.

It's a trifle too early to test FlyChina's prowess for a flight that actually takes place in the course of next year's Shanghai World's Fair. Place a test booking for an outbound flight on June 9, 2010, and a return on June 16, and China Eastern will currently respond with a hefty round-trip fare of $1,059 (which is still not bad when you consider that all government fees and taxes are again included).

And yet -- to repeat the point -- it is perhaps a tad too early to request discount fares for 10 months from now. I'd wait another two months, but then make a stab in October. And if the lowest airfare showing at that time (again on China Eastern) is still $1,059, I'd grab it. For it is entirely possible that a heavy movement of Americans to Shanghai's vast World Expo 2010 (made up of pavilions from 200 nations) will cause big upward pressure on airfares, causing $1,059 to remain an excellent price.

Once in China, virtually everything else is reasonably priced (the Chinese Yuan is steady at a bargain-like 6.83 Yuan to the dollar), and from all reports the Shanghai World Expo (i.e., a World's Fair) will be wonderfully instructive -- a real glimpse into the future. Admission is just $20 a day.