SHANGHAI (AP).- China declared its biggest tourism event ever, the Shanghai World Expo, a stunning success Sunday, after introducing a record 72 million visitors to a smorgasbord of cultures and technologies meant to illustrate ideas for urban sustainability. The massive, six-month event aimed at showcasing China’s rise as a modern industrial power drew mainly local visitors, many of them ordinary folk from the provinces who flooded into the city by the tour busload-full, cramming the city’s hotels, subways and other public places. They found waits of up to 10 hours for some popular national pavilions, sweltering summer temperatures, long walks and other inconveniences for what could be once-in-a-lifetime direct contact with foreign places and people. Premier Wen Jiabao praised the fair Sunday as a “splendid event” that “truly brought together people around the globe.”