Shanghai - day at the Expo


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Asia » China » Shanghai » Luwan
June 11th 2010
Published: July 9th 2010
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So it was back to the Expo. In an attempt to beat the queues, I headed off early - to get into the park at opening time.

I had reckoned without the airport-style security. So I arrived for 9.30 and got into around 10.30. I naively headed first to the Chinese provinces pavillion, only to be told that it was entrance by reservation only. I couldn't really be bothered to queue for a reservation, so I headed instead for the Japan pavillion, right at the end of the Asian zone.

I had also underestimated how fascinated the Chinese visitors would be by the Japanese pavillion (perhaps surprising given the lingering resentment after the violent Japanese occupation of the East coast of China). I joined the queue thinking optimistically that it would be an hour wait tops. Four hours later two things happen, 1. I was about ready to either slit my wrists or burst into tears and 2. I had finally got into the Japanese pavillion.

They did give quite a show - to be fair. But I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not just waited 4 hours for the privilege. The first part
Expo axisExpo axisExpo axis

ie walkway, the backbone of the Expo
of this deceptively big pavillion was an exhibition of key facets of Japanese culture: a tea house, Sakura (cherry blossom), their poetry and art. There was a whole bit dedicated to ecological activities - a community project to save a lake, educating the younger generation about ecological sustainability. All done through changing screens and using Japanese technology, naturally.

Then we were ushered into a room where the real show began. On a stage in front of us, our two Chinese-speaking Japanese hosts demonstrated the technology of the future: a touch screen wall of a house. Think i-pod or i-phone touch and make that extend over an entire wall. Frankly, as a European, I found the technology almost banal - obviously the next step. I had to remind myself that touch technology hasn't hit China yet in the same way and so it was a new and fascinating gimmick to them. We were told about the crested ibis - once extinct - and the Chinese-Japanese initiative to reintroduce them into Japan.

The real gimmicks were the firstly "personal transport of the future" - essentially a wheelchair that looks like the seat in a train, available to everyone to get around speedily. If you have seen Wall-E, it looks scarily like the hover chairs the humans veg about in, except with wheels. It didn't seem to occur to my fellow audience members that such a device would cause sheer chaos in China with their population density. Secondly, we were shown a violin playing robot - unlike the motorised chair, the robot was actually put in front of us and played. I was relieved to see that, although the motor function in the fingers and the bowing was there, the robot was NOT in fact dexterous enough to play the violin. Phew! Professional musicians can sleep soundly for a while yet.

The last show was an opera - a fusion of Chinese and Japanese styles - along the theme of the wild crested ibis, using the motorised chairs. It was a touching story, just to emphasise the need for ecological sustainability (I told you it was done to death in most of the pavillions).

So you got a lot for your money - or rather your time. However, having lost most of the day to the Japanese pavillion, I swore never to queue for longer than 20 mins again. I grabbed some lunch (I was so hungry I think I inhaled it) and headed for the European zone, to try the smaller Eastern European countries, and the less popular African pavillions.

It was interesting to compare the smaller countries' pavillions with monoliths like GB and Japan: the smaller countries - particularly the emerging Eastern European countries - were there to advertise their country and culture. To put it on the map for people who ask - where IS Moldova? And, of course, to attract tourism. The larger countries, smugly assuming that the visitors were already interested in them, either tried to sell a concept, like GB, or offered entertainment and gimmicks to the astounded crowd, like Japan.

The gimmicky pavillions were fun, a bit like visiting a theme park. The most popular pavillion, for example, was the Swiss one, which you were taken round in a real ski lift. Attractions like this meant that the queues were horrendous - 4 hours was not the longest! And the queue itself tended to put me off.

However, the smaller pavillions were often staffed by home nationals, which was great from my point of view (we would inevitably gravitate
African stageAfrican stageAfrican stage

the dancers were great.
towards one another as two foreigners) as I got to talk to some really interesting people and get their views on China - "different", mostly.

My conclusion, however, was that the Expo is aimed, somewhat naturally, towards Chinese visitors who will not have the opportunity to visit the countries for real, rather than foreign tourists who may well. Hardly a break-through, I realise, but it took a night and day for me to grasp that.

This was nowhere more apparent than with the Expo passports. It was possible to buy - and I did - an Expo passport, and to get stamps for each pavillion you entered. Most of the Chinese visitors I saw took this extremely seriously and were stamp collecting - sometimes not even looking at the pavillion at all. I am told that full Expo passports are sold for hundreds of RMB on Chinese E-bay. I have a few stamps, but I wasn't a serious collector.

Expo'd out and tired, I returned back to the hostel, had dinner with a random English guy I met in a restaurant (another person I disturbed over dinner), who, I feel, held me rather in contempt for my poor Mandarin - fair enough, and went to bed. Perchance to rest my aching feet.


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