Almost every (cheap) airline connection from the US to our city requires an overnight stay on the east coast, so I flew to Shanghai and met Susan on her recent return from the States. Since we had planned an extra day into the schedule, we decided to pay a visit to the World Expo. It only made sense to spend the entire day on our feet since Susan was 12 hours behind on her sleep…
A key learning: if you ever want to hold a big event and draw large crowds, plan to do it in Shanghai. Right away, you have a guaranteed attendance of at least 20 million people. The Expo venue is huge, covering 1300 acres and spanning both sides of the Huangpu river. There are 190 countries represented, most of them with expensive, elaborate buildings. But don’t plan to visit all of them in one day, especially since you’ll be waiting in line for 3 hours to view the major ones. We tried to get into the American exposition, but the line was overcrowded and closed when we showed up:
Since we couldn’t get into the USA, we decided to do an easier thing and visit Russia (the line was a reasonable 1.5 hours):
The center of the exhibition hall was a multi-level artificial garden with huge flowers, reducing the hundreds of tourists to a swarm of bugs winding along the paths, listening to stories by Russian children about their visions of the future of their country. In addition to visiting Russia, we enjoyed our tour around the huge “Urbania” pavillion which took you through a day in the life of six different families around the world, each one living in a separate city. We also entered a number of smaller country pavillions (short lines!) to hear them pitch their worthiness to tourists and potential investors.
One of our favorite exhibition halls was constructed by the Netherlands. They turned the standard building inside-out, allowing large numbers of visitors to flow up and down ramped walkways, peering through windows into small houses enclosing historical and technical artifacts. From the top of one ramp, you can get a good view of the UK pavillion with Shanghai in the background:
At the center of the UK exhibit is the “seed cathedral,” sporting 60,000 transparent rods, each containing seeds sourced from the Kunming Institute of Botany (imagine that). In the midst of all the high-tech exhibits on-site, it’s interesting to stop and stand amazed at the amazing biodiversity placed on this planet, fingerprints of our Creator.
Actually, the external architecture of each pavillion is one of the best parts of the entire Expo. If you get a chance to visit, skip the lines and just tour the grounds.
Great post — would love to check it out sometime. Interesting country choices… What made you pick the Netherlands?
The key selection criterion was a short line. But their structure was also unique in that it had a huge astroturf plaza underneath. Several hundred full-sized wooden sheep were scattered about, serving as places to sit in the shade. On a sunny day, it kind of drew you in.
We also walked around inside of the Carribbean Island Pavillion – a huge hall for of all of those small countries to strut their stuff. It really reminded me of our experiences in the islands. Not because of the beautiful displays, but mostly because the assigned planners must’ve told each other “soon come – no problem.” Much of it has yet to come, and it seems to be a problem…
We also shot some photos of Tanzania for your sake.
Wow! Sounds amazing. I had no idea what a World Expo was like. Glad you got the chance to go. I wonder if in other countries the lines would be shorter….? 🙂
Is it free to go? Where are the rides? hahaha…
You have to buy an entry ticket for 200 RMB per day per person (about $30). It’s like a visit to Disneyworld’s EPCOT center, only four times larger and one third the price.
SB – As a fellow resident of this country, I expected you to have a different comment about the lines (as in, “do they actually wait in lines?”).
I’d hoped you would get to go. Once in a lifetime thing and all.
Nice to see that you have visited the World Expo. I went to Shanghai a month ago when I came back to China. But I didn’t go to the Expo just because of the huge number of visitors. I never want the 3-hour waiting, haha. Instead, I went to Fudan University and stayed with my high school friends for 3 days.