The Shanghai Expo, Day 1
I finally made my way to the Shanghai Expo 2010. After a hot summer and growing expectations, I realized that if I didn’t go to the Expo, it would have been a waste of an opportunity, since I lived so close.
After much prodding (and my guilt of teasingly flakiness), I succumbed to peer pressure from my classmate. I realized I was running out of time and good excuses to avoid this 800 pound gorilla.
Yet, the three things I constant heard about the expo was – thirst, tiresome, and heat. In my mind, there was no way I was going to go in July or August. The infamous Shanghai summers had no trouble in convincing me to stay out of the sun. Some of my classmates had no desire to even come close to Expo. Though I knew a few had to even scout it prior to their boss’ special expo visit. My coworkers told horror stories of lines that they stood for hours.
In fact, the Saudi Arabia pavilion has a line that people stand in for up to 8 hours. I know of the Taiwan and the China pavilions having separate lines for reservations in which, people rush to stand in, in the early morning hours. Scalpers would sell these reservation tickets from 150 RMB up to 800 RMB (for the Saudi Pavilion).
But today I avoided scalpers and long lines, and even the heat and thirst. On this cool late September Shanghai day, we used our connections, friends, and basically our guanxi to get us into pavilions. We started at the German Pavilion, with a friend who immediately got us in, past the three hour line outside. I thought the architecture of the German pavilion was a bit boring with angles of gray corners – boring German post modern style. Once inside, we were treated to rooms exhibited with German engineering and green technology. Basically, the pavilion was a bit boring, till we got to the finale. The last room – sort of a large round room with three levels featured a large light ball. This ball was swing and sway around the room based on the excitement and loudness of the spectators. It was exciting … for the 1st 10 seconds. Below is a video of the large German Ball of Light.
The Life Ball from The Thirsty Pig on Vimeo.
Next up, we strolled over to the Swiss pavilion, courtesy of our German friends, who gave us German passes. Inside was a large IMAX screen featuring the mountains and slopes of the Swiss alps. Not much else. There was a large ski lift ride that was broken that would have taken you up over the pavilions for a short ride. Since it was broken, which I heard was broke down for awhile, this pavilion isn’t worth it. Though what I thought was funny, the gift shop stated that they didn’t sell swiss army knives. What was interesting also, was the architecture of the Swiss, it was basically two large flared at the top cylinders, with netting of red lights. With the netting, the two buildings would look like 1970′s style nuclear reactors – kind of ominous.
After the visiting Switzerland, we moseyed over to the España pavilion with our Golden Tickets (it was just paper from the German’s). The exterior of the building featured wood mesh, sort of like they destroyed a bunch of wood furniture and stuck it on a building. It looked cool from afar, but up close – kinda dirty. With our special passes, we saw a cool dance scene with video images all around. The pavilion experience was kinda short – with videos playing most of the time. Not a lot of interaction. At the end, there was a large scary looking baby, in which the crowd gathered towards. I noticed that they had a nice restaurant nearby offering tapas and wine … which almost drew me back. Check out the video below of the opening sequence at the Spanish pavilion.
Pavilion of Spain from The Thirsty Pig on Vimeo.
After Spain, we visited the Italian pavilion courtesy of our friends from Coca Cola. This was by far the best pavilion we visited. WIth a Ferrari, a large high heeled shoe, a couple of Italian restaurants, and a wine & pasta room, the Italian pavilion proved to be most interesting with much to see. There was a room talking about their recent recovery efforts from an earthquake. Our lunch was at the Italian Pavilion featuring great risotto.
In addition, we made our to visit the Coca Cola pavilion on the Puxi side. We decided to take a short ferry to see the river and the bridge that connected the 2 sides. After a short walk passing several corporate pavilions, we saw the glorious Coke building. Our friend got us in, pass the hour long line, into the Pavilion. We were treated to an ice cool Vitamin water drink. It appears Vitamin water is making its splash debut at the expo, which is a great idea. You couldn’t walk more than 100 feet without seeing a vendor selling coke or Vitamin water. Then we got to see a nice animated film featuring fantastic characters. And at the end, we all drank an ice cool coke.
The whole main purpose of the expo is to bring interest and excitement about visiting other countries. Countries spend millions in developing their pavilions and marketing, to pulls potential visitors to spend tourist dollars. In addition, visitors also need to be convinced that these countries are doing well and the right things, as part of the PR message. I hope to visit the next one, in South Korea in 2012.
In my next post, I will try to show you the US, China, and Brazilian pavilions.
Shanghai Expo 2010 from The Thirsty Pig on Vimeo.
