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Published: June 17th 2010
Flags of Participants
With China Pavillion in backgroundOn our second visit to the Expo on Saturday, June 12th, we entered near the China Pavillion. It's hard to explain how massive this pavillion is compared to others. In the pictures, look for people at the base and you will get an idea. After entering, we walked around looking at the exteriors of the pavillions. The lines were all very long, so we sat to decide where to go and a young Chinese man came up to us and gave us 2 "fast pass" tickets for the Taiwan Pavillion! We had about 45 minutes to wait to use them, so we walked around the area a liitle more before returning. We still waited in line for close to an hour, but it was worth it.
The Taiwan Pavillion has a large Sphere Theater inside of a glass lantern hood. Our tour began inside of the Sphere theater. We stood on a bridge in the middle and watched a movie about Taiwan's nature and scenery. They call this a 720 degree Theater, supposedly the only in existence. You are completely surrounded by the movie, and there are also pictures and movies on the outside of the sphere. In addition, when there
were flowers, you could smell the fragrance and when the dolphins dove, you got sprayed with a water mist. I usually get a little overwhelmed with Imax movies, and I did have to close my eyes a couple of times. It was a great movie and I wish I could see it again! Next, we moved to the Lantern Lighting Water Terrace. Here, we were able to choose from 12 messages and send our own digital sky lantern up the outside of the Sphere and "into the sky." I chose "Peace, prosperity, and happiness" and Leah chose "The good life" - she said she figured that covered it all!From there we moved to the last tour area where we were served oolong tea in souvenir tea cups, we sat on benches sipping it while listening to a musical performance. Then a woman did a tea ceremony, which we couldn't see because of all the Chinese people crowded around, but one of the tour guides explained it all to us.
We walked through more of the Asia section, decided that all of the lines were too long and that we would cross the river to the less crowded Puxi side. We
took the free ferry across the river to Area D. Our first stop there was the World Exposition Museum. After entering, a man said he would be our guide. No one else had a guide, so I guess it was because we were the only foreigners there at the time. We started by seeing a movie which gave an overview of all of the past World expos/fairs. They also had a display of various architecture from each Expo and a plush toy of each of the past mascots. There were displays of many great works of art, the first one being a painting depicting the opening of the first World Expo in London in 1851. It was by Henry Courtney Selous and was on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The display I liked best was the famous statue, "The Thinker" by August Rodin. I have seen many pictures of this, but was surprised at how small it was! I always just assumed it was at least life size, but, it was probably no more than 3 feet tall. There were many more Rodin pieces, including "The Kiss." There were also quite a few historical displays including bell's first
Macau Pavillion
From the Expo website: "The pavilion is covered by a double-layer glass membrane and fluorescent screens. It is 19.99 meters high, symbolizing Macau's return to the Chinese mainland in 1999, and exterior LED lights will change colors to create a splendid show.The design was inspired by rabbit lanterns, which were popular in southern China in ancient times. Kinetic balloons will form the head and tail of the "rabbit." In Chinese mythology In Chinese mythology, the jade rabbit is a guide to Nantianmen, the door leading to a fairyland."
telephone, Edison's light bulb and the first camera. I would have liked to have taken more time looking, but our tour guide kept moving us along. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the works of art.
The Space Home Pavillion had displays of various space technology and life in the future. I wasn't too impressed with it.
At the Shanghai Corporate Pavillion, called "The Magic Cube" or "The Dream Cube," we watched a robotic performance at the entrance. Here is some info I found online about the building "So we knew that the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion was rad - it's made from recycled cd cases, but we didn't know how rad until the designers of the project sent us the first pictures of the completed pavilion. The entire facade of the building is covered in an LED array that can be changed on a whim, but -- and here's where it gets cool -- the lighting scheme is determined by people interacting inside the building. Computers aren't controlling the lighting, people are with their actions, like waving their arms and clapping their hands!" It was fun watching the robot build a large cube picture puzzle under the constantly changing lights!
China Pavillion
Look for people at the base and you will see how massive the size of this is! We visited the China Railway Pavillion, which had some nice models of some big Railway Stations and also an old train made in the US.
Our last stop was the Aurora Pavillion. We started by watching an animated movie, then moved along to see displays about jade, including some fantastic carvings. The last carving was quite large - taller than me, and had exquisite detail!
At this point, we were worn out and headed for the nearest exit to catch a taxi home.
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anonymous
non-member comment
A larger "Thinker is located in San Francisco at the Legion of Honor
http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/about/thinker