but all of my posts seem to devolve into something entirely unrelated.
The 2010 Shanghai World Expo, like all the other constructions in
China is gigantic. The complex itself has several bus routes within
it (though I think only one was operational). Knowing that the event
would be polluted with other tourists like ourselves, we decided to
wake at 5:30 in order to be at the gate slightly before 8. In order
to put this in perspective, they don't even allow people to enter the
park through any of the gates (there are quite a few, but I don't
recall exactly how many) before 9. However, by 9 o'clock the sea of
people behind stretched farther than you could see. I believe Linda
captured this image in one of her photos, and I'll try to link that up
in the future. Now here's where things got a bit hairy. At 9, when
they opened the security checkpoint, all of the people at the front of
the line ran through the gates/security point and into the park.
Despite the wishes of the police officers, they literally ran into
Expo. Being in public in China still catches me a little off guard
sometimes because there's really no such thing as personal space. In
the States, when I'm walking around people tend to keep their distance
with a crowded bus or train being a possible exception. Heck, I don't
want to touch anybody if I can help it. On this side of the Pacific,
however, no one cares. As a matter of fact, if you're in a busy place
and don't do a little pushing and shoving yourself, you'll people will
walk right over you, or you'll never make it on the subway. That last
one's from experience, by the way. In the end this is all somewhat
understandable. I suppose if there were four times as many people in
the U.S., I might be inclined to do the same thing.
But more about the Expo. Since we were at the front of the line we
made it to the Chinese pavilion with ease. For those of you who may
not have known, the Chinese pavilion is the place to be at the expo,
and for good reason. More on that later. The Chinese pavilion is far
and away the largest of all countries present. Not that there aren't
other big ones, but China's size is unequaled at the Expo. So after
waiting in line at the Expo gate, we quickly got in line for the
Chinese pavilion, once we were let in, we rode the escalator/moving
walkway up to what we thought was going to be the inside of the
building. What we really did was get in line to ride the elevator up
to the third floor. Once we finally made it into the fairly artistic
reception area, we opted out of the line to watch the introductory
movie. This was all so we could stand in the other line to see some
original Chinese historical artifacts. After that, we seemed to move
through the floors at our own pace. If you couldn't tell, going to
the World Expo is pretty much an exercise in patience. Now, there are
some cool things to see, but overall, I felt like it just kind of sets
you up for disappointment. After waiting in line for a few hours, in
your mind your expectations start to climb no matter what you tell
yourself. So, by the time you walk into a country's exhibit, even if
it would normally be considered an engaging showcase, you can't help
but think, "Gee, I waited two hours just for this?" As I alluded to
before, the Chinese pavilion may have been one of the few that
deserved a long wait. Unfortunately I didn't make it to some of the
other bigger countries, so I'm really just assuming that since the
Chinese one was the biggest it was naturally the best. That's how
things work, right? Now, I'm not hating on the Expo, I thought it was
pretty entertaining that most of the world had a presence there. I
think we actually took advantage of that by going to visit a lot of
small countries where we didn't have to wait to get in. Albeit some
of those countries I probably couldn't find on a map. I will say that
not all hope is lost though, in fact, it rained the next day, and I
heard that the lines were only around 20 minutes for some of the
bigger countries. So, at the end of the day, if you can take one
thing away from my experience, it should be this: go visit the Expo
because it's a good experience, but only when it's raining.
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