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.
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