We're on holidays!

We've embarked on a mammoth adventure - we've taken the kids and are travelling through Yunnan, in south west China for nearly a month. So far we've been to Kunming, and seen the Stone Forest, caught an overnight train to Dali, where I've bought more than I probably should have, and seen the 3 pagodas, been to the top of the Cangshan Mountains in a cable car, cooled our feet in a freezing stream and wandered for hours through the old town... you can read about our adventures at my travel blog

(http://aboo10.travellerspoint.com/)

and see photos too...

We're off next to Lijiang, and hopefully up to Shangri-La too!!

When our holiday is done, I'll be back here again, hopefully regularly!!

Expo (part 2)

Welcome to Shanghai Expo 2010... well that's what I think that sign says! Not a particularly amazing guess, as I know that the first 2 characters is China, then 2010, then Shanghai... and guess what? - this is the main entrance. Mike and I arrived here at 10.30am, so not crack of dawn early, but pretty good for us having got out of the house and pacified the kids before going. In the distance is the security check before having your ticket validated... so imagine arriving and having these barriers packed, and the queues snaking along as everyone's bags go through X-ray machines, and people are skolling the illegal water trying to be smuggled in. We looked at each other, and said "How lucky are we?" We could just take our time and saunter up to the barrier and waltz straight on in to Expo!

Once through, Mike took a moment to get his bearings and become accustomed to the scale of the Expo site, and the sudden crowd. The main entrance brings you in with a prime view of the China Pavillion. It has long been said that it is nearly impossible to get into the Chinese Pavillion, yet when we arrived, the queue to the Chinese Provinces Pavillion seemed to be moving at a fairly good rate. So we decided to join it... 20 mins of slow, but constant moving we were at this entrance. We were so excited!! When I came with Mum and Dad, we asked a security guard about getting into the China Pavillion, and were told that if we wanted to go to a 'Chinese' Pavillion go to the Hong Kong or Taiwan pavillions and they would be a bit like it. We thought that was pretty funny really.

Inside the pavillion was a bit like a trade show, as each of the provinces had a display and a stand, or a mini-pavillion. We visited the pavillions for Tibet, Chongqing, Yunnan, Hunan, Hainan, Sichuan and Shaanxi - there were loads more, but some had queues, or like being in any 'museum' you can't see it all!

On my last visit, I bought the Official Expo 2010 Passport, and in this you collect stamps (visas) for each pavillion you visit. Going into the China Provinces Pavillion was a field day, because each of the regions had stamps!

It was interesting to see the things about each region that were chosen to be highlighted...

Tibet - stunning temples, and mountains (no surprise there I guess)

Hainan - beach life, tropical fruits

Chongqing - industry, particularly automotive. And we were lucky enough to be there for a dance performance.

Hunan - was like being in a park, with video projected on to a Mobius Strip, which is a twisted continuous path that has no beginning and end.

Yunnan - was really exciting, because that's where we are going for our holiday - so we were keen to see the decorated archways, a dinosaur, a jade stone collection and have a taste of Yunnan tea.

The following photos are: Hunan and Yunnan

Surprise, surprise, after all that walking, looking, listening and observing, we were starving! So when we left the Chinese Provinces Pavillion, we immediately started looking for food. We were overwhelmed with the heat and humidity when we came outside that we sat down on some seats to regroup, and look around. We were between the Pakistan and the Sri Lankan Provinces and could smell curry in the air... we found the source, coming from the kitchen and take away window of the Sri Lankan restaurant... so we thought we'd take something, eat and then work out what to see next...

The decision was made for us though as a man working there told us it was far too hot for us poor foreigners to be eating outside, so ushered us through the kitchen and into the restaurant, in the Sri Lankan Pavillion. What bliss, we were in the cool, we could eat at a table comfortably, and then we could look at the Pavillion afterwards, of course without further queuing, as we were already inside! What more could we want? Well, a Sri Lankan dance performance of course... just as we finished our lunch a performance started and went for about 15 mins, and we had prime seats, not standing room like the people not in the restaurant - it was just like a theatre restaurant!! We again acknowledged how lucky we are! The photo is of the main room of the pavillion which had a temple, an ornate ceiling, I think decorated with batik panels, a gold Boo Tree, display of the history of Sri Lanka's towns and cities, a man polishing stones to make jewellery, and lots of art and statues.

From Sri Lanka, we jumped up onto the raised walkways. We knew it was hot, but we could also imagine just how many people could have been here. Look in the photos below at the breadth of the walkway, and how many people were resting in the shade underneath.

We both wanted to go to the Spanish Pavillion, and strangely enough, it is reportedly the only pavillion that hasn't passed a fire safety check, due to the basket panels which cover it. We had a long wait to get in, but as seems to be the way, it kept on moving. The first room we were in was like a tunnel, and when we came in it sounded like we were in the middle of a crowd watching the soccer. Movies were being projected on all walls of the tunnel, and then suddenly were being trampled in the running of the bulls in Pamplona and the floor vibrated to add to the excitement. The film ended with Rafa serving along the length of the tunnel. It was really impressive. The next room we went into continued to broadcast film images, but of a more open nature, and you could pick and choose what you looked at. The last gallery contained an enormous 6.5m scale model of a baby, which was really a bit creepy as it was so lifelike (except for its size), which was all to acknowledge the children of the future, and making cities for them. It was nice though because of the light that penetrated through the basket exterior.

We had heard that having your passports may help with queue jumping into your home pavillion, and so we thought we'd try and get into the UK Pavillion, but no luck there. You can make booking THREE days in advance online. The UK Pavillion is a cube made of 60,000 acrylic rods which give it a hazy appearance. It really is impressive. It is also known as the seed cathedral, as seeds are contained in each of the rods. The rods also act as internal illumination during the day as light from the sun can penetrate inside the structure, and at night they are illuminated which makes it glow. Hope we get in to it next time!

The last pavillion for the day was Italy - the country of our spiritual honeymoon... next time we are in Europe we will definitely revisit Italy! It was a really long queue, we waited for about an hour to get in here, and it was slow. But it was my favourite pavillion so far!! It was like being in a museum. Started with an impressive welcome wall which had a greeting written in loads of different languages. There were loads of models of buildings including the Pantheon, which were incredibly detailed, a couple of Canaletto's paintings, a flash fast car (I've forgotten which type), a Ducati motorcycle, a fancy bike, a studio with a tailor in making a bespoke suit, a big shoe made of normal sized, but exquisitely beautiful shoes, a chandelier made of chairs, a wall of pasta, a wall of wine, a full set up orchestra with all the instruments, music, chairs and stands suspended on a wall, rooms and displays for each of the regions.

We had a great day, and were glad we could leave the kids at home, and see as much as we did. Mike enjoyed his first trip, and we look forward to going again! There's still so much I haven't seen - I'd love to go to the African and American Pavillions and also all the trade and industry pavillions.

Shanghai Expo 2010

Since arriving in Shanghai 2 years ago, we have watched the city prepare for this 6 month long event with construction and clean ups. There have been numerous new roads, a massively expanded metro system and of course the construction of the Expo site. And we have become very familiar with Haibao, the mascot.

Haibao is based on the Chinese character which means person, and ties in with the Expo emblem, which depicts 3 people (me, you and him/her) and is based on the Chinese character which means 'world'. This is Ellie with Haibao trying to copy his pose, when she'd just turned 2,

and giving him a big hug - yesterday!

The theme for Expo 2010 is 'Better City, Better Life' which represents the wish for better living in future urban environments, representing a central concern in the international community for urban strategies, policies and sustainable development. To that end, all the Expo buildings have been built to be energy efficient, the cars and buses which are used within the grounds are all electric and each of the countries represented are doing their bit to show their cities.

Environment, technology, innovation all seem to be key areas in each of the pavillions, although sometimes it seems like there is a display which is a bit too abstract for me at times. For example, in the Hungarian pavillion, there is a 'forest' suspended from the ceiling and a path winding through, past a big shiny rock. The 'trees' are beautiful beams of timber, just hanging, but with an LED light in the bottom which changes colour.

The Cuban Pavillion was straight forward, they have one wall which has a stunning view of Havana, as if you are standing on a terrace, and the back wall is a bar serving Mojitos and Dacquiris, and then there is a shop selling rum and cigars.

The first time I went to Expo, I didn't really know what to expect. I went with Mum, Dad and Jamie, and we went through a remote entrance gate in Lujiazui and caught a ferry up the river, this was a lovely trip, although took about half an hour. We took a bit of time on arriving at Expo proper, just taking in the size and magnitude of the site, as well as orientating ourselves. The first pavillion we went to was Australia, we queued for about an hour to get in, with Jamie asleep for most of the time in the pram, and then were a little underwhelmed. There was a nice brief display on the Aboriginal history of Australia, but then from 1770 there were these ghastly caricature-like sculptures and pictures of settlers. Then into current day Australia and there were pictures all over the walls of notable Australians, from Cathy Freeman to the Wiggles. Then we were ushered into a round theatre, which had a pretty impressive visual display of Australia, using film, models and impressive staging. The presentation is only done in Chinese, and so although I understand a bit now, because of the rapid-fire presentation technique, I found I kept getting lost even though with many of the images, I should have been on track.

Our next pavillions were chosen due to lack of queue... so we walked straight into Belarus, followed by Armenia! Both interesting, with scale models, pictures, achievements and interactive screens. One had the screen on the floor which you walked on, which entertained Jamie, and Jamie entertained the other visitors.

The second time we went, it was Mum and Dad with all their kids and grandkids (6 of us in total, Mum, Dad, Marnie, Ellie, Jamie and me). Two little kids in tow, what were we thinking? But in the course of the day, each kid had a substantial nap in the pram, a substantial run around, a substantial amount of enjoyment from the outing and a substantial amount of attention from the Chinese!

This time we visited the French, Estonian, Danish, Finnish and Hungarian Pavillions. The real winner on the day was the Danish Pavillion - not only for the delicious salmon and egg open sandwiches, and not for the hundreds of bikes available to ride up to the roof, not even for the fountain that you could stand in and not get wet, but for the starring appearance of "The Little Mermaid", all the way from Copenhagen, and a delight to all, especially to the Ariel fan in our family!

We queued for ages to get into France - but it was stunning when we did! They'd brought over a few masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay, which were lovely to see. Had some cool visual effects which made it look like you were for example walking in the snow, or along the river, showcased a wide range of products, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc, had an open kitchen display which was cooking for the restaurant, a rooftop garden and of course Champagne. The pavillion's appearance reminded me of the new Macquarie building in Sydney with the criss-cross lattice.

Marnie took Ellie to play in Pippi Longstocking's house outside the Swedish Pavillion, while Mum, Dad, Jamie and I went into the Estonian Pavillion which had a strange display of piggy banks each of which was to collect votes for the best green city idea. It was interesting to learn though that Skype was invented in Estonia.

I loved the pavillion for Finland, home of Nokia, it had a bluetooth enabled display, which was pretty cool to start with, but the frequency of getting text messages, began to bug me by the end! It had a very cool display of products from Finland (other than phones) and the way of life, and then a huge film which showed life in Finland. I loved the concept, although would have been happy with 5 messages rather than 50! It was also a really slick building, and the displays were intriguing. We met Marnie and Ellie outside, who were watching a Finnish music concert, where the performers were sitting on chairs in the moat around the pavillion. Ellie was transfixed, I think she wished she had her gumboots on and could wade out to join them.

We again spent loads of time just wandering around the site. There are these enormous raised walkways which traverse the entire length of the site. We wanted to visit Germany and the UK pavillions too, but the queues were prohibitively long. The German queue was insane, it went around three sides of the pavillion, three deep, and has been each time I've been. Queuing is an art, there are barriers which snake everyone forward and back, but amazingly moving almost all the time, so you feel like you are getting somewhere. The Expo site really is built to cater for crowds. They had a record crowd last weekend with 553,500 in attendance, I think the days I've been have averaged about 400,000. To put it in perspective, that's 4 jam packed MCGs!

I feel like I'm becoming a bit of an Expo expert, I have now been three times - twice with my parents, once with Jamie, once with Ellie and Jamie and once with just Mike. With children is good, because you sometimes get priority service in queues, but then so do wheelchairs, and Expo organisers had arranged to have a huge number of prams and wheelchairs available for daily use, and in the case of the wheelchairs have had a huge number stolen, because the deposit wasn't high enough and also had people 'faking' medical conditions for priority access. But even so, they have still got to queue. This is the wheelchair queue for the French pavillion and even it doubles back a couple of times.

I'm going to leave this post here, and tell you about my day with Mike separately!