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Hi everyone from me here again in Shanghai! I have spent three days at the World Expo and two days pounding the busy city streets since I last wrote so I have lots to tell you about, but not so much about my sight-seeing, more my observations of the Chinese - they are driving me mad!
So, the World Expo - it far exceeded my expectations and really was quite astonishing. It is the single biggest event in human civilisation, covers over 5km and cost double the amount of the Beijing Olympics to construct. The site was enormous, split into 5 zones on two sides of the river, one largely filled with country pavilions (over 200) and the other full of commercial and corporate pavilions with a million things in between. Some of the architecture was unbelievable and the street furniture was fancy too with some ingenious mechanisms of keeping the crowds cool - it was scorching - over 50 degrees on the ground! Let's just say it was one enormous theme park, just stuffed full of Chinese people!
I arrived at an ungodly hour on Wednesday morning - I had to I was told, and it was a sight to behold - the queues were enormous. The crowd started shuffling as the gates opened at 9 and then we were off - it was a stampede - a scary sight with 500,000 Chinese running at you! I quickly realised they were after tickets to the Chinese Pavilion - impossible to get hold of and after that the queues for each pavilion stretched for miles. There was no way I could compete so I satisfied myself with the outside of the big pavilions with some really awesome designs, and headed into the quieter ones. Each was a showcase of the country but all were meant to draw on the theme of the Expo - 'Better City, Better Life'. Some were great and others a Chinese trap - they love tacky stuff so bought all sorts of native junk. Some pavilions like North Korea, Cuba and Iran were really intruiging, it's not often that you get an insight into such countries. They were laughable though, N Korea's motto was 'Paradise for People' complete with films of people dancing and singing, and Zimbabwe had a happy greeting from Dr Mugabe, hmmm... The Arab countries were cool and New Zealand awesome (even if I am a little biast).
On Thursday I set off around the European and Americas sites with an array of ingenious pavilions. The US was totally predictable - three separate 3D screens with a greeting from Mr Obama and lots of tacky stuff that the Chinese simply loved - they ooohhed and aaahhed the whole way through! The Phillippines and Jamaica were brilliant - full of dancers and musicians, the Finland pavilion was surrounded by a lake and the Swiss one had a chairlift! The UN and EU pavilions were great, I oohed at the British flag :) And as for the UK - it was totally different from the rest - innovative and refreshing and I beat the 5 hour queue with a quick flash of my passport - he he :). It was constructed from millions of glass rods each filled with seeds to highlight biodiversity loss in cities. I was a bit disappointed to see no images of Cadburys choc or anything else purely British though - I was feeling a bit home-sick at that point!
Yesterday, I headed over the river and explored the corporate pavilions and Urban Best Practices Area - where cities showcase themsevles. London did itself proud with a neat Zero Emissions building complete with a speech from Boris with his blonde mop although he was drowned out by Chinese translation :(. There was also a section on Liverpool (the twin-city of Shanghai) complete with a mock line-up of the Liverpool football team - the Chinese whooped and whooped - they were in heaven! By dark the pavilions were lit up in all sorts of wacky ways and I wandered through the whole South site taking it in. I got a bit late and chose a bad time to leave - the heavens opened and it bucketed down. I was soaked through and walked for an hour searching for a Metro - it was awful! The visibility was so bad from the rain and smog and there was no shelter at all, I ended up in an area full of wide, deserted roads and carparks. No one spoke English and despite my pleas and flapping of a soggy Metro map, no-one could understand me. I got so desperate that I even asked an army man (they are randomnly scattered all over the place), who marched off his podium and saluted me before marching back on! I was pretty glad to be back that night and found out that a red storm warning had been issued - great!
Now for the rest of it. Firstly, despite being a World Expo, I saw no more than 30 non-Chinese during my entire three days, they were everywhere and they ran everywhere too, they pushed and shoved and tried every trick in the book to get round me in a queue. It drove me mad but I quickly sussed them out. The mothers and their Little Emperors were worst. They often wore the same T-shirt though so it was always easy to block the mother pushing the brat past you. The Chinese have a serious spitting problem too, they spit everywhere. No direct hits yet although my toes have been in danger on several occasions. The Chinese also love to take photos of absolutely anything and everything, they are so funny to watch. The photo requests were worse than ever though and I got so fed up, declining every time except once when someone literally threw a baby at me. Sometimes it was very funny though, people would walk past me and double-take staring in fright like I was a 10-eyed alien! It drove me mad but did have some advantages. Often in a queue I would point at the rubbish someone had just discarded and they would hastily pick it up very embarrassed. One time I got so annoyed when a car tried to inch round me on a green man crossing, I stopped in front of it and waved my arms at the light and crossing. He got out of the car and apologized at my feet!
The Expo really was a fantastic experience and I had a brilliant three days. It really did leave me wandering it's purpose though. The horror stories I had read keeping the Western world at bay were completely true but also totally understandable. It was a showcase of the entire world in one place to a popluation who have no idea what the outside world looks like. The sheer population of China is incredible and they will do anything to see all that's on offer. Hopefully Milan in 2015 will be a bit easier - I'll be there!
In between the Expo I've also spent two days exploring Shanghai. It isn't quite the spectacle I had imagined and not the easiest to get around - the Metro is tricky and even the maps are wrong. I have therefore spent lots of time joyriding in the wrong direction. No matter what time of the day they are always crowded too. The Chinese are funny to watch, when they get a seat it's like they've won the lottery, a beaming, satisfied grin. I got my first seat en route to the Expo on Thursday and enjoyed it so much that I went way past my stop and spent 45 minutes getting back - oops! I explored the central streets on Tuesday - the Bund full of grand colonial buildings with a signature skyline over the river, the main shopping street of Nanjing Lu, Remnin Park and the Old City which resembles a Western ChinaTown. It was great although the streets were chaotic. I was on red alert for pickpockets but nearly lost my camera - I was lucky to hear the velcro being opened at a busy junction, and also tried several times by people trying to invite me for tea. All sorts of weirdos wanted a chat too and it was amazing that I returned home with all me belongings. I walked around the Old French Concession today which was far more pleasant, full of narrow streets with quaint shops, galleries and cafes where you can watch dumplings, cakes, egg tarts and all sorts of meaty things being made. The parks were alive on a Saturday morning with groups singing and dancing. There were some great expressions of Communism too and a brilliant, descrete museum called the Propaganda Poster Centre which gave a fascinating glimpse into Communist China. And after all that culture I ended up with a bag of Percy Pigs in a Marks & Spencers on Nanjing Lu, eek!
Finally, after a mission trying to secure a train ticket to Beijing and another horror show at Shanghai station, I have booked a flight to Beijing for tomorrow. My last city - I'm pretty excited! The flight makes a random stop somewhere and a quick Wikipedia on the airport tells me it's a random one out in the sticks in a military airfield but hey, I'm off to Beijing!
Grace xx
P.S. Sorry for the essay!
- comments
Dave awesome post!