EXPO 2010 in Shanghai (上海）

With Dan’s girlfriend in town, Ida, we decided that it would be a perfect time to visit the East Coast city of Shanghai during their hosting of Expo 2010. Expo is composed of pavilions from most, if not all countries in the world, designed to encourage tourism to that country. The theme for the Shanghai Expo was “Better City, Better Life” and was designed to showcase green efforts in the various countries.

We took an overnight bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai on a Friday evening, leaving around 9pm and arriving 11 hours later to a grey, cloudy, rainy city. The train itself was quite new and stopped at no stations along the way. The three of us were staying in a 4-bed sleeper, meaning more than likely there was going to be one other person in the same room. As we had not had dinner at the point, we had visited the McDonald’s in the station and went about eating it once we entered the car. Not two minutes later, a young Chinese girl walks in, our new roommate, to see three Westerners gorging themselves on fast food. After putting her stuff down, she went into the hallway and started texting on her phone, no doubt to tell her friends about the horrible position she was now in. We had started playing cards, but we decided that we would let her have the privacy of the room and we would take our game to the dining car. When we arrived, we found all of the tables taken, but no one was eating and very few were drinking. A standing table, occupied by train workers, was graciously offered to us and we say down. It wasn’t until a few hours later, with the exact same people still in the dining car, that we realized these people bought tickets for seats and came to the dining car to sleep, as it was more comfortable than the seat the paid for. It didn’t make sense to us, but then again many things in China don’t make sense to us. As can be imagined, with a train car full of sleeping people, someone is bound to snore. This poor soul was rather overweight and could not have been comfortable. As we were not trying to sleep, we just laughed, but we could see other people who were not quite so amused by the situation.

We ended our card game in the early morning and retired to our bunks to catch a little sleep before arriving in Shanghai. Despite it being too early to check in when we arrived, the hotel in Pudong where we were staying had the rooms available, so we were able to put our stuff down and take a shower before heading over to the Expo sight. It’s situated on two sides of the river running through Shanghai, with the area to the north reserved for individual city exhibitions and various corporations. The southern part was home to the main area of country pavilions.

We were excited to see what the various countries had on offer and were greatly disappointed when we approached the Japanese pavilion to find a line that twisted back and forth through the barricades an endless amount of times. Now, none of us are big fans of waiting in lines, but we did make several exceptions while there. However, standing in a large pack of other humans for 3+ hours did not sound inviting for any of us, so we swallowed our disappointment and continued on our way. The same occurred at the Republic of Korea pavilion, another one we wanted to go in. Instead, we decided to simply enjoy the outside designs of the pavilions, most of which are quite ambitious in their construction.

At one point, we happened to notice the DPR Korea pavilion, and considering Dan and I were headed there the week after, we decided to check it out. A bonus being there didn’t seem to be a line. As we were walking over there, we started to see a few people jogging, then running towards the entrance. This was followed by more people. Curious, and also worried about having to now wait in line, we joined the scamper only to discover that the majority of the people were only running because they saw other people running. Most likely because they saw what we did in that there was no wait involved. Groups of people act in strange ways.

In total, we were able to enter the DPRK, New Zealand, Norway (Ida’s home country), Canada (Dan’s home country) and Cuba. Naturally, we would have gone to the USA, however Hilary Clinton happened to be in town that night and was hosting a dinner there, so the one day they are closed the entire Expo was when we happened to be there. We decided to take a picture showing our displeasure with this outcome, only for a young staffer of the pavilion to laugh at us and insist that she take a competing picture.

Protesting the closure of the US pavilion

After talking to staffer for a few minutes, she informed us that we should check out the Cuba pavilion, as it was essentially just a bar. Intrigued by this, but perhaps not at all surprised, we ventured over. Sure enough, the only real exhibition about Cuba was the bar serving mojitos and cuba libres and the numerous Cuban cigars for sale. What intrigued me about the way the mojitos were made was that the bartender added a splash of Angostura bitters at the end. I had never thought of that before, but they were delicious nonetheless.

The next day we visited the Bund, the famous riverfront avenue along the river that sports many buildings built in the early 20th century by, mostly, wealthy British businessmen. The other side of the river, Pudong, used to be a ghetto until it was designated a Special Economic Zone within China in 1990 and grew rapidly. It is now the financial center of Shanghai and houses the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center and will soon showcase the Shanghai Tower, scheduled to be completed in 2014 and will be the 2nd tallest building in the world (behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai). At one point, Pudong had nearly 1/3 of all tall construction cranes in the world in operation, the result of which can now be seen.

Looking across the Bund to the Pundong financial district.

We took a nice leisurely stroll around after, ending up in Renmin Park (People’s Park) with a few beers. We sat there for at least 5 hours; talking, laughing and occasionally engaging in conversation with the many passing pedestrians. Our stomachs growling, we searched for food, eventually successful, before stumbling upon a karaoke bar. This was perhaps the bad idea. I’m not sure why, but we had to rent the room we were in for six or so hours. Seeing as how it was already nearly midnight, this meant we either paid a large amount for an hour or two or just sucked it up and took all of our allotted time. Well, six hours later we emerged to a shining sun, illuminating the pedestrian boulevard and causing us to squint our eyes against the unfamiliar brightness.

I decided to visit the Yu Gardens, a walled paradise situated in the old part of the city. With it being so early, I was fortunate enough to be one of, if not the first, visitor that day. In the end, it turned out to be quite the blessing, as I was able to experience the true peaceful nature of the enclave. I in fact found a nice place to lay down, so I put up my feet, closed my eyes, and dozed away to the sounds of the nearby waterfall.

The view from my secret napping place in the Yu Gardens

The day ended with us catching a flight for the two-hour ride back to Beijing. Dan and I then had just two days to prepare for our trip to the DPRK. Stay tuned for that…

Jesse

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