Memories of World Expo 2010

I was fortunate enough to catch the World Expo in Shanghai with a friend of mine last September. And, thanks to her cousins who gave us their incompletely used 7-day tickets, my first day's entrance was practically free!


So, what were our realizations when we arrived at the World Expo? One, it was huge. No, it was HUGE. Each pavilion was almost the same size in area of the Folk Arts Theater. Some were as big as Mall of Asia. Considering how many countries participated, adding in the number of walkways and food buildings and washrooms, plus the roads... and I will not be assuming if I say that those maps of China weren't exaggerating. China is BIG. Whoever's on the opposite end of it in the world better watch out when all those people start jumping up and down together.

In relation, we also found out how many Chinese actually exist. We visited the Expo for TWO DAYS. And I could count the number of foreigners (which, for my purposes, I shall define as non-Chinese-looking people...) we encountered in it using my hands... give or take some of my toes. Even less were the people who actually spoke English. I was almost desperate to just bump into SOMEONE who did NOT speak Mandarin, that at the end of the first day, I pleaded that we go visit the Philippines Pavilion in spite of our aching feet. The minute I heard the people hanging out near the band area speak Tagalog, my psyche breathed a deep sigh of relief. (No one minded us much though, since my friend was Fil-Chi and my features are more oriental than morena. So yeah, we pretty much looked like the natives.)

Naturally, there were a lot of people, there were also a lot of lines. Really really REALLY long lines. Lines that rivalled the ones formed for the rides in Disneyland with their 4, 6, 8 hour waits. Unfortunately, most of them were for sought-out countries like the UK, the USA, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. My friend and I took one look at them and decided our strategy would be: "Let's just go find places without lines and see how many we can get into." So, I armed myself with one of those Y35 passports, and we headed to the exhibits of countries we wouldn't normally dream of visiting, let alone heard much of. On the first day, we visited Luxembourg, Romania, Angola, Tunisia, Peru, Lithuania. We were lucky though, that we were able to enter Belgium, Netherlands, Egypt and Austria, as the waits for those pavilions weren't as long. Later that night, we snuck into Ireland and Australia just before they closed up. And yes, the Philippines.

Most important when navigating the EXPO: The EXPO Map.

On the second day, our strategy for tackling the Expo went: "Let's start in the Puxi side and then work our way down to Pudong later. We'll see if we can catch the more popular ones before they close like we did last night." While most of the countries are in the Pudong area, the Puxi side across the Huangpu river has the Industry Pavilions, notably that of Japan Industrial, Coca Cola, Repubic of Korea Business, China Railway, and Cisco. We were intrigued by the Japan Industry Pavilion after seeing people on our first day there walking around with free eco-bags bearing its name. It would have been our first exhibit for the day... except we should have expected the line... and matching 3-hour wait. I told my friend, "Let's just go to Tokyo sometime in the future. I'll tour you."

 Which isn't to say we didn't do anything there. We did have lunch. There were a lot of benches nearby, as well as drinking fountains and beverage vending machines. So, all we needed was food.

Gyudon

Yakisoba?

Takoyaki!

Coca-Cola wasn't any better, but we expected that. So, we went into the Pavilion of Urban Footprint, right next door to Japan Industrial. I can't explain it more eloquently, so let me copy-paste the description from the Expo site:

City's Origin Hall shows what cities looked like in the early agrarian era. Visitors may have a chance to understand the reasons behind the formation of cities including those along Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, ancient worship systems, patron saints of ancient cities, among others. Growing City Hall shows full-blown cities, including Florence, Amsterdam, Byzantium and Istanbul. Visitors may have a chance to see ancient streets in China's Song Dynasty and Japan's Edo Period, and know more about urban development achievements in Tibet and about the Forbidden City in Beijing. Urban Wisdom Hall deals with the Industrial Revolution era. Industrialization is depicted as a double-edged sword that changes the life in cities. New York and London are cited as two examples of innovative wisdom. The exhibition also includes the culture of the Chinese Grand Canal and the urban renewal efforts in Shanghai.

We spent about two hours or so looking at dioramas and renderings and sculptures and murals and recreations of cities from as far back as Mesopotamia and Athens, Greece, to Edo, Japan, and to present-day China. It was a humongous place and there was just so much to see! I found out later that most of the exhibits were on loan from museums. (Sources: China Daily. Beijing Review.) It was so worth the time we spent inside.

I found the people clustered in front of this statue amusing. They seem so... fascinated.

I'd like to note the huge (notice the amount of superlatives I'm using in this post) hall with several projector screens cycling through videos of life back in Greece; I think one was Peru?; 19th century London back when it hosted the very first World Expo; and present-day New York. I assume the set-up was done such that you would feel like you were in that time period. The guy in the picture at the bottom reading a newspaper was on the screen beside me, while the wall in front of us showed the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park where the Great Exhibition was held.

It was mid-afternoon when we finally exited the Urban Footprint Pavilion. We skipped towards The Republic of Korea Business area next -- so much technology! -- then headed towards the Urban Best Practices Case Pavilions on the other end of the Puxi site. According to China Daily, "the Urban Best Practices Area offers a stage for cities around the world to propose their solutions to urban issues from different perspectives." After all, that's what the Expo's theme is all about right? "Better City, Better Life"? Apparently, few people than expected found themselves wandering those exhibits, which was great, for there were next to no lines! Plus, most of the areas were short and weren't as time-consuming to go through. You get to cover a lot of ground, see each city's message, marvel at the displays and learn. Or, in my case, be envious of the fact that these people have achieved these things with so much discipline.

When the sun went down, we braved the crowds and the lines (and my paranoia about overloaded sinking boats) to board the ferry towards the Pudong site instead of taking the subway. We had a strategy... which proved futile as the big Asian pavilions, namely, Japan, Korea and China, their satellites, and neighbouring countries India and UAE were still being swarmed by people. Luckily, we were able to get inside the UK to see what all the fuss surrounding it was about. And we frantically ran towards Italy right before they closed.

I've got SO many pictures and little anecdotes about each pavilion which I'll run down in another post. Meanwhile, check out some that I've uploaded over on my flickr on the right.