Shanghai will unveil discounts and special routes to encourage more children to visit science sites, city officials said yesterday.

The plan is part of the city's investment in science works ahead of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

"Hopefully, the city's science tours will excite visitors outside the World Expo site in 2010," Zhang Jianwei, secretary-general of the city's popular science sites union, said yesterday at a forum on science tours in the Yangtze Delta Region.

According to Zhang, Shanghai had more than 150 popular science sites, including museums, university exhibition halls, institutes and farms.

Over the next three years, the government will work together with tour agencies to open 10 routes under names such as "health tour," "industrial tour" and "ecology tour."

The first route will be opened by the year's end.

"Parents and their children will have much fun there," said Zhang.

The "health tour" may include the Shanghai Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicines, China Dairy Museum and Qianwei Village on Chongming Island.

The "industrial tour" may include Jiangnan Shipyard Museum, Shanghai Waterworks Museum and Shanghai Glasses Museum.

Officials with the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission are planning to provide a discount service for frequent science visitors this year.

They plan to issue "popular science passports" for locals. The passport holders will receive stamps, like visas, from different popular science sites after each visit.

If the number of stamps reach a certain level, the passport holder will get an admission discount.

Some students yesterday said they wanted multiple admission passes because the sites were so big.

Yao Shiming, a junior student who visited Shanghai Science and Technology Museum yesterday, said: "It's impossible for me to see everything here in one visit. It will be better if I can buy one ticket and be allowed to visit the museum any time in one week or longer."