It is an interesting time to be in Shanghai, its the time of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo!!!! Well, thats what the dozens of Haibao and constant streaming of commercials has been telling me since I got here way back in September. Who or what is Haibao you ask?? Well its the weird Gumbo shaped copy of a creature pictured on the left. (Yes, China loves to copy things...everything at that). Well as of May 1st, it is open and running full steam, for better or worse. I've been to the expo twice now, once with Trent for a school report and once with my parents when they came to visit. This is a combination of what I thought about this so called 'World Expo.'What is the World expo anyways?? I still am not quite sure after being there twice. I thought it was going to be a showcase of what the future was going to be like in say... 20 years, or the latest technological achievements of the countries participating. Well I think I've come to the conclusion that the World Expo is really just one big culture fair / souvenir shop on steroids. Don't get me wrong, the outside of the pavilions are pretty spectacular to look at, especially at night... but the insides are seriously lacking.And by lacking,
I mean lacking anything that really blew me away or would make me want to keep coming back. Except for getting the Coke bottle at the Coca Cola pavilion that after you shook it, it would turn to basically a Coke slushee, which was pretty darn cool. But anyway, the pavilions just seem to be showcasing the culture of their country, trying to convince people tomaybe one day go and visit, and of course trying to sell whatever junk souvenirs they are famous for at exorbitant price because hey, its the World Friggen Expo! Well here is the UK pavilion, a pretty cool porky pine looking thing made of thousands of recycled plastic LED filled rods.Well, it was an interesting experience non the less, and I can at least say I've been to one World Expo in my life. I can rest easy knowing that I checked that off my list of life long achievements. O, and pictured below, a case of the famous idea that 'Chinese can sleep anywhere.' This picture was taken from the Netherlands Pavilion, I guess this couple thought they could sleep below a country's pavilion without being noticed. I like the special touch of the expo map blanket.
