World Expo

We have visited the World Expo 4 times so far. We bought 7 day tickets, so we technically can go for 3 more days. The trouble is when to go as the weather is getting hotter and hotter and going to the expo is completely exhausting. Yesterday we heard that nearly 400,000 people went to the expo. To me, that means long lines and crowds which are two of the reasons I will be happy to leave China although after I actually leave, I do think I will miss all of the people. I will have the idea that a place seems "lonely" when there are not another 20,000 people in the same space. Crowds do not bother me as much as they used to, but the idea of waiting in super long lines seems like torture. We only have a few more weeks for visiting until the weather becomes too hot to enjoy doing or seeing anything. In light of this, I am guessing we may go to the expo again tomorrow. 

So far we have been to the Pudong side of the expo for three days and we enjoyed the cultural exhibits of many countries. The pavilion we waited in line the longest to see was the Saudi Arabia pavilion. There was a huge (largest in the world) IMAX screen, but the video wasn't of great quality and it wasn't all that impressive. We waited 1.5 hours to see the pavilion and I would not do it again. The UK pavilion was probably the most impressive to me. It has a seed cathedral in which 6000 different kinds of seeds are mounted in these acrylic rods. I have heard that the seeds will be planted in China or donated to some seed bank after the expo. The Canada pavilion was also quite interesting. It was created by the people who did cirque de soliel. It was colorful and had a good message. The USA pavilion was somewhat disappointing as all we saw were movies and information from corporate sponsors. For a country that is trying to sell the value of creativity, I do not think the pavilion did a good job to represent this value. In addition to these, we also visited several other pavilions. 

On the Puxi side, there are some corporate sponsored pavilions and more pavilions that seem to be more about the theme of the expo "Better City, Better Life". I was impressed with the GM pavilion and the pavilion about communications. I was not that impressed with the Urban Practices pavilions. 

There is a lot more to see on both sides of the river, and we still have not gone into the China Pavilion nor have we seen any of the shows. Many of these rely on some reservation system that I am not very sure about. We haven't gotten around to figuring it out yet. I suppose we will go a few more times as we have tickets.

To some extent, I really had no idea what to expect as I have never been to a world expo before. I have seen the transformation that has taken place in Shanghai during the past 6 years, so I suppose I was expecting the expo to be really amazing. In this regard, I have been somewhat disappointed. But at the same time, I have nothing to compare this expo to. 

I think the next World thing we will go to will be the World Cup.