Episode 4: Expo!

I know it has been quite some time since my last update, but I promise to try and churn these out at a faster pace in the future.

After I had already decided to come to Shanghai for the summer, I discovered that the city would play host to Expo 2010. Having never been to a world expo before, I was excited by the prospect of being able to see what they were all about. I didn't have to wait long to go however, as on the first Sunday that I was here, the 13th of June, Justin, Kelly, Vic, Ariel, and I set off for the Expo early in the morning.

First impressions of the expo were of awe at the magnitude of the whole thing. It takes nothing more than a glance at the numbers to get an idea of the scale of the whole affair. $48 billion USD was spent preparing the city, 18,000 families and 270 factories were relocated from the ground that would become the expo site. Six brand new subway lines were built, 4,000 taxis were added to the fleet. Clearly, Shanghai felt that this expo would bring big business.

After getting off of the aforementioned new subway, we headed over to the ticket counters. The scene reminded me of theentrance to Disneyland, with barricades crisscrossing a vast expanse of asphalt, directing crowds to the ticket windows. Luckily, we got there early enough to miss the majority of the crowd, so we were shown the way directly through to the ticket windows. Tickets are normally 160 RMB each ($23.50 USD), but students get a special discount rate of 100 RMB, provided a student ID is shown. Lucky for me a CT drivers license looks an awful lot like a college ID to the counter workers. After passing through a security check that was remarkably similar to the type of checks that are seen in airports these days, metal detectors, x-rays and all. Water bottles were also confiscated at this point.

The expo was not quite what I was expecting. It is a sprawling affair, covering 2.6 kmsq, and once inside you get a sense of how big it all is. There are roads all over the place, and there is a bus system in place. It's really a small city within the city of Shanghai. After a quick stop at KFC for lunch (we were hungry and it was the first place we saw), we headed out to see the sights.

If anybody who wishes to go to Expo has a fear of large crowds, they should stay far, far away and visit the online version. Crowds are everywhere, and lines are absolutely insane. Everywhere you turn, there are throngs of people, either making their way to an exhibit or standing in line for one. This brings up the second problem with the expo. Lines. Every single exhibit, save Africa, had a line stretching from the entrance to eternity. We considered getting into line for the Chinese exhibit, the largest exhibit by far, but were told that there was no chance of us getting in that day. Keep in mind, this was 12 hours before the expo was scheduled to close. Saudi Arabia's line was 8 hours, Japan's 4. Even lowly Kazakhstan had a wait time of 2 hours, and they didn't even bring Borat with them!

The African pavilion was interesting as it was basically a giant warehouse with every African country save South Africa, who had their own Nelson Mandela-branded pavilion, group together, each having their own floor space to show off the wonders of their country. After Africa, we wandered around, desperately trying to find a country without a 5 hour wait. We settled upon Israel, as it had quite a short line. The architecture of the building was very interesting, and soon we were ushered into a circular room filled with glowing orbs and TV screens, where we were treated to a short video about all of the innovations Israel credited itself with.

We finally broke down and had to see what was inside of Japan's pavilion, clearly the weirdest building at the expo, looking
something like a Pokemon. We waited in line for a solid 4 hours before getting inside, where we wandered through passageways, experiencing both new and old Japan. We were then ushered into a room where we witnessed a rather long and cheesy story about the crested ibis' return to Japan, in which new technologies such as a wall-sized screen that responded to gestures, were showcased. A humanoid robot also performed a concert for us on a violin. Then it was off to a theater, where an only-in-Japan opera was performed, with the subject being the crested ibis, once again. I personally thought that the high-tech wheelchair dance was a little much.

These were the only three exhibits we would venture into, as all of the others had lines that were far too long. From the outside however, we were still impressed by the creativity on display. The UK, Luxembourg, Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China, and Spain all stand out in my mind as truly being works of art. A notably strange corner was one at the far end of the park, where North Korea and Iraq had pavilions side by side, both lacking any sort of creativity or flair, We dubbed this the enemies of America corner. Overall, it was a fairly good experience, but the sheer number of people attending the expo marred it somewhat. Hopefully we can find a time to come back when the crowds are thinner.