Shanghai World Expo

[Meng Lelan]

That's what I was wondering, how the whole system operates. So is there one kind of ticket that lets you wander around viewing the grounds and another kind that gets you into the pavilion of your choice? I thought the China pavilion was going to be the most popular then again the news reports are predicting 95% of the expo visitors are Chinese so maybe the Chinese want to see something different like the pavilions for Europe and the US.

[skylee]

This morning I heard on the radio this report (which my friend's husband who works in Shanghai said he had not heard of it at all) -

亂象不斷的上海世博會發生奪命事故！韓國國家館邀到多位熱門韓國名星，準備昨晚舉行韓國音樂節。當局昨日派發免費門票時，引來成千上萬「韓流」追星族「撲飛」，因韓方派發部份門票後突然停發，引發騷亂，一名少女被從二樓逼墮下身亡，引發人踩人，另有逾百人受傷。當局調上千名武警封館處理。上海世博當局昨晚無發佈相關消息。

據內地多個網站透露，上海世博會韓國國家館原定昨（ 30日）晚舉行韓國音樂節，據悉出席的韓國明星包括目前炙手可熱的韓流明星及組合，如 Super Junior、安七炫、寶兒和 f(x)。館方昨日在世博文化中心派發 5,000張免費門票，憑世博會門票免費兌換；引發上海追星族瘋狂，有人於前日下午即到派票的世博文化中心排隊等待。

消息指，韓方原擬分上午、中午和傍晚三次派發免費門票，至昨日上午 9時 30分，文化中心前排隊者已近萬，開門派票時現場擁擠不堪。當局在派發部份門票後，即停止派發，引發民眾不滿，認為是工作人員私自截留，指罵工作人員，高喊「 SJ」、「韓庚」等韓國明星名字，以及「發票」等口號。

消息形容，工作人員向民眾解釋，所有門票由主辦方負責，不派門票也是韓國主辦方決定的，但排隊者不信，大罵工作人員，並一度雙方互罵。其間部份民眾出手撕扯現場維持秩序的武警，抓傷武警手臉，並高喊要去世博會組委會投訴。

消息指，當時群情激憤，人如潮湧，二樓欄杆被擠斷，一名少女從樓上被擠跌落樓下，不治身亡；人群見狀大亂，爭相逃避，裏邊人向外擠，外邊人龍向裏擠，發生踐踏，據悉至少有逾百人受傷。有目擊的網民描述指，現場「凌亂不堪，哭喊叫聲震天，鞋隻散落一地」；世博會 A區救傷車鳴叫不停。

And now there is this report -

上海世博會韓國館新聞科長文恩惠今天澄清，昨天韓國館並沒有發生遊客排隊領演唱會門票的人踩人死亡事件，又指門票在世博中心順利發完，演唱會也成功舉辦。

I am confused.

[gato]

There is a report here. Looks crazy.

http://shanghaiist.com/2010/05/31/korean_pop_group_super_juniors_conc.php

[Meng Lelan]

Maybe I should just go shopping when I'm in Shanghai and not go to the Expo. I'm not hearing many good things about the Expo for one thing.

[skylee]

I'm not hearing many good things about the Expo for one thing.

I agree. I feel the same.

[whereishunter]

One month in to it and things are still crazy!! Here is my advice if you are planning on going to the expo.

First, DO NOT visit during the weekends, there is just to many people. Last Saturday there was over 500,000 people on the site. Check out the Expo numbers here

Second, If you plan on going at all be prepared to line up all day. Some places take up to 2/3 or even 8 hours to get in, then you spend about 20mins or so inside. I was talking to someone that works at the German pavilion and they close at 10:30 but stop people from lining up at 8pm.

Third, I am telling everyone not to bother with a all day ticket, just get a night ticket 90RMB from 5pm. Come check the place out and see if you want to spend all day standing around. Also last month the numbers at night did drop off a lot around 6/7pm. But with it starting to get warmer things will change.

Personally I think the whole thing is a waste of time and money. With working on the site I go there everyday and with my pass I dont need to line up to get into most pavilions. The ones I have been inside are not very interesting. But some of the builds are look really cool during the night, so maybe its worth checking them out, but not lining up.

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks for the report whereishunter. That's almost what I thought the Expo would be like. I think I'll just go shopping for teaching materials when I get to Shanghai.

[alleywatson]

Don't go it's rubbish, unless you like 7 hour queues honestly guys it's really really busy just got back after a month there, managed to get got free tickets cos family is Shanghainese so we went, the long lines are everywhere we got in a queue, an hour later decided it wasn't worth it, it was baking hot so wanted an ice cream, bad idea, people were pushing trying to sneak through the queue, showing the foreign visitors that 5000 years of history hasn't really done them any good at all, eventually we decided to walk around Pudong at night and went for some dinner in Zheng Da Guang Chang a massive shopping centre in pudong, last I heard now was that cos it's baking hot 32-35 people are bringing their own drugs so they don't faint in the queue, i really don't remember people making so much fuss over the Japanese one.

[skylee]

A colleaque of mine has just spent the whole of a five-day trip on the Expo. She and her family went there everyday and she did not mind much about lining up (actually she said she found the trip enjoyable). I think she is quite special.

[Budikurns]

Just went there few days ago..

First time to go to any expo, and after entering 2 pavilion (France & Switzerland), i stop thinking to enter any more of them..

It's really not worth the time with what's the pavilion offer

Not to mention the heat

Finally we just walking around and entering into not so popular pavilion which only takes about 5 minutes to queue

Even if someone give me a free ticket, i would not bother to go there again

[knadolny]

Well we made it to the expo so as promised I have taken a lot of pictures and did a quick blog post on the event. I've copied my blog post below, but the pictures are hosted at the Shanghai World Expo. Of course I had some negative views of the expo as people mention above but I tried to keep the blog positive as I know many Chinese traveled from all over the country just for the expo. They seemed to love it. Plus some of the architecture is really awesome. I am a structural engineer so I might enjoy that part more than others.

Last week my wife and I headed off to Shanghai to visit the World Expo. Before departing so many memories of previous trips flashed before my mind. The very first time I headed to China was in 2003 right after the summer of SARS. Notably the streets were empty. Tiananmen Square was mine for the taking and the Great Wall was only our tour group of five people plus a few hawkers. I didn’t realize it wasn’t crowded until my next trip when I was utterly shocked at how many people China can bring to events.

My first trip was sponsored by Cornell University, where I received a check to travel in China for absolutely free. That was a seriously amazing deal and I am absolutely loved the trip. One condition was to write a paper about my experience. At the time many classmates, newspapers, etc. were focusing on the negative stories coming from China. I didn’t lambaste the Chinese for their lack of manners or criticize them for the pollution, but instead wrote an essay comparing the positive in China with the negative in America. It was an essay quite critical of American policies.

Seven years later, I find myself in a different perspective. Maybe it is because I am now a working professional, or maybe I am just used to the finer things in life, but I couldn’t help finding fault with many of the things in China.

However, this blog is not another article from a Western perspective about what China should be doing. This blog is about the purpose of the Expo and how the government is putting on a massive performance to excite Chinese citizens about their country’s prospects in the century to come. The Beijing Olympics was an event for the world. The Shanghai Expo is an event for China. The government has made an event that millions of Chinese are visiting and is something the Chinese deserve to be proud of.

On average 350,000 Chinese citizens from all over the country are storming into Shanghai to see the Expo every day. Afterward, the bund is filled with tourist families from all parts of China taking pictures of Shanghai’s awesome skyline in Pudong (as well as the occasional pictures of lao wai walking by, i.e. me). The excitement on their faces is palpable.

Lu Xun wrote in his preface to Nahan in 1922, “the people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they may be, can only serve to be made examples of, or to witness such futile spectacles; and it doesn’t really matter how many of them die of illness. The most important thing, therefore, was to change their spirit, and since at that time I felt that literature was the best means to this end, I determined to promote a literary movement.” I believe the Chinese government has reached the same conclusion. However, they are changing the spirit of the Chinese through building a spectacular Shanghai skyline (an even taller building is now under construction so it is getting even cooler), a world-class Expo with amazing architecture, and a huge subway network rivaling the world’s best.

My wife and I headed to the Expo on August 11th entering from the Puxi side. The Puxi side doesn’t have very many pavilions so we took a ferry to the Pudong side where most of the pictures below are taken. We only went inside the African and Cuba pavilions. I am not a big fan of huge lines and the heat was raging in mid-August. However, the sky was blue making it a great day for pictures. Therefore, we have pictures of just about every country pavilion (from the outside). If I am missing one, please send a picture and I’ll add it.

My favorite pavilion is the Luxemburg pavilion. I loved the rusty steel facade and the shapes. A few days after visiting the expo, I couldn’t decide which was my favorite. One week later, the Luxemburg pavilion is leaving the strongest memory. Which is your favorite?

[taylor04]

I was there for about four months. I worked at the USA Pavilion and saw some crazy crazy things, which I won't get into. For me, working at the expo was a great experience, but I wouldn't recommend waiting in those crazy lines... In my opinion, if you don't have any pavilion you have your heart set on seeing, buy a day ticket and walk through the expo and check out all the architecture. There are some very cool pavilion designs.

[Meng Lelan]

The kids and I actually decided NOT to go to the expo for the same reasons as taylor04 said. We went shopping and we were amazed at how empty the stores seemed.

[knadolny]

buy a day ticket and walk through the expo and check out all the architecture

Yeah that is exactly what I did and for that reason probably found the expo quite enjoyable.

The kids and I actually decided NOT to go to the expo for the same reasons as taylor04 said. We went shopping and we were amazed at how empty the stores seemed.

I know! My thoughts in Shanghai were filled with "bubble". Lots of growth and new stores but without the people spending cash to support them. I was really surprised.

[gato]

Nice pictures, knadolny. The link above to your blog needs to be edited.

[rob07]

I was in Shanghai last week. I didn't really want to go to the Expo, but I felt I should, so I did.

I was interested in the Taiwan pavilion, but it was one you had to buy a separate ticket for I think. (Hong Kong and Macau also had their own pavilions). There must have been some pretty intense diplomacy around that.

I thought it was a bit cheeky for Malaysia to put up a giant red neon sign in the middle of Shanghai that said "Malaysia. Truly Asia". The pavilion also said "马来西亚. 亚洲魅力所在", but that was much less prominent.

I queued to see my home country pavilion and then planned to just walk around the grounds but it started to rain. There was an announcement over the loudspeakers which started out by saying that unfortunately Haibao wouldn't be able to visit because of the weather so I tuned out. Then when the English translation followed I realised they were telling me not to use an umbrella because the metal tip could be struck by lightning (etcetera), which rather killed my motivation to wait out the storm.

[Relinquished]

I went to the expo a few times and I thought it was really good! My favourite ones were Denmark, where they sold quite a lot of beer and where you could cycle up onto the roof! I also liked Russia and Spain!

I also didn't realise that nationals of some countries could get into their pavillion without queing. I qued for 3 or 4 hours to get into the British one only to see a sign as I was leaving stating that British passport holders didn't have to que!!

Best time to visit was definately in the evening when it wasn't so hot and you could get into most of the smaller pavillions without having to que.