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Published: June 29th 2010
On June 25th, we took our 3rd trip to the Expo. We're getting the hang of everything there now, and it helps knowing what to expect. The main difference from the past two times was that the entire day was rainy! I think I preferred the rain over extreme heat though, even having to dodge all the umbrellas! I was impressed that the pavillions handed out plastic bags for your umbrellas as you entered.
We are never quite sure exactly which entrance we will be arriving at because the driver has been taking us so far, then we switch to a special Expo taxi which is "supposed" to get us closer to the actual entrance. Well, after finally getting an Expo taxi after 25 mins, I realized after getting dropped off (at Gate 8) that there were plenty of regular taxis and even what looked like a personal car, so, forget waiting for a "special" taxi next time!
We had decided ahead of time to spend the day in Area C. We had hoped to start off at the Sweden Pavillion, which is supposed to be like a big playground, but the line looked way to long for our liking, so
we moved on to the Netherlands. This pavillion is called "Happy Street." You walk up a winding pathway where there are various displays along the way. My favorite was the Vincent Van Gogh display. The main item of importance couldn't even really be seen - it was supposed to be one of his red hairs which had been found in a palette of paints in a home where he had lived. This didn't excite me to much, but I enjoyed the rest of the display since we have studied most of the paintings that were there. The lower floor had sheep statues scattered everywhere and since it was raining, people were sitting amongst them and eating their lunches.
While on the upper levels, we were able to get good views of the United Kingdom Pavillion which we've been wanting to see. It's very unique looking, here's some info from the official website:"The first World Expo came about in the United Kingdom and was then known as the Great Exhibition, held in the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park. This majestic metal-and-glass edifice was not only home to the extravaganza display of products from all over the world, but was also the
iconic symbol of the world fair, being considered one of the most beautiful structures in the world until a fire destroyed it half a century ago. Now, the United Kingdom has brought to Expo visitors a new version of the Crystal Palace - a dazzling cube formed by more than 60,000 slim and transparent acrylic rods containing seeds of different plants that were collected in a bio-diversity project. "
We had a simple lunch at the Canadian Pavillion, Leah was happy to have a hot dog and french fries and I had a roasted chicken leg, veggies and fries. The line to get inside looked rather long, so we decided to move on.
We went into the Carribean Joint Pavillion and I was rather disappointed at the many empty display cases. I started talking to a woman at the Saint Kitts and Nevis Pavillion and she said that it was because the Chinese customs department had not released there display items yet!
The Trinidad and Tobago Pavillion had costumes from the most recent Children's Carnival. I was curious if they had special meanings, so asked the worker and he was more than glad to explain them all - unfortunately I
Van Gogh Display
Netherlands "Happy Street"don't remember all of the details! I found this info online: "Carnival in Trinidad & Tobago is by far the highlight of the island's holiday calendar, and that goes for kids as well as adults. Just like mom and dad, the children of Trinidad & Tobago spend months (and vast sums of money) preparing for Carnival and readying themselves for the most elaborate costume parade you're ever likely to witness. Carnival Monday and Tuesday have a wild, adults-only reputation, but the Chidren's Carnival -- held the Friday before Ash Wednesday -- is a wholesome, family friendly affair."
Next we visited Chile, where the theme was "City of Relations." The first room had an entire room upside down in the ceiling! Interesting, but I'm not sure what it represented. Thye also had a "well" with a live webcam from chile. Supposedly, Chile is exact opposite Chile on the globe, so the idea was that you were looking through the earth's core at the people in Chile. They were moving the webcam around to different places that are open all night in Chile and every so often they held up a sign with the time and waved. There was a huge computerized
Van Gogh Display
Netherlands "Happy Street" wall map of Chile which a worker explained to us. I never knew Chile had such diverse geographical features!
The Mexican Pavillion is actually underground, what you see in the picture is above ground. Once we entered the pavillion, we sat and saw a movie about Mexico, then we entered a huge room with a variety of art exhibits, including a section with masks on poles and you could look into the mask and watch movies. The one I tried wasn't very good quality, but Leah said hers was OK. Then they have you exit through a shop area where there is artwork for sale displayed in cases. There was also a good sized restaurant and we thought a taco snack sounded good, but the restaurant was closed at that time.
For our last stop we decided to try the line at the Canadian Pavillion. We didn't realize that the line continued on the inside, but it was fast moving and we were glad we waited. While waiting, we were entertained by some performers from Cirque du Soleil. I guess on nice days, they do performances in the center open area of the pavillion. I liked the girl who had
butterflies who on wires so they were flying all around her. The main display area had some interesting things. One was called a virtual waterfall, and although the water wasn't coming down it (?), the pool had pictures which you could change by putting your fingers through the couple inches of water and touching the pool bottom. Then there was a movie area, and although you had to just sit on mats on the floor, we appreciated sitting and watching the movie.
We were tired out and decided to leave even though it was earlier than we planned- good thing we did, we had to wait in line for an hour to catch a taxi!
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david.zhou
non-member comment
Thanks for your advices
Hi,Linda,your experience is very improtent for me to Expo . I plant to there a month later . According to you , I should take some measures before go there , or I maybe make lots of mistakes . So Thank you .