{"id":830,"date":"2010-10-18T21:53:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T21:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/?p=830"},"modified":"2022-08-09T18:47:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T02:47:43","slug":"a_brief_look_at_the_shanghai_e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/a_brief_look_at_the_shanghai_e\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief look at the Shanghai Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Vancouver<\/a>\n

 <\/p>\n

Image via Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

On a whim (back in May), I purchased some round trip tickets from San Francisco to Hong Kong via Vancouver on Air Canada<\/a>.  The all in price was US$600 which is a real bargain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s one hell of a positioning flight but it put me within 2.5 hours of Shanghai<\/a> and the Expo.  I cashed in miles for a Business Class roundtrip on Dragonair<\/a>.  Due to a really tight schedule, I spent a total of 8 days away from my house which meant only 3 days in Shanghai, which were filled with debauchery, closing bars and getting back late late.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more about the nightlife later.  On the last full day in Shanghai, I visited the Expo.  If I could take one memory back from the Expo, it would be queues.  Lots and lots queues.  All of them shared one thing; that they were really looooong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So instead of showing you boring pictures of a never-ending queue, I’ll instead show you some pix of the Expo at night. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"IMG
All roads in the Expo lead to the China pavilion.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s deceptively large.\u00a0 That means that you can see it from everywhere and it looks kinda big.\u00a0 Then when you are next to it, you realize it’s REALLY big.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"IMG
This is at the perimeter fence. There’s still more walking to get to the China Pavilion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Now we are closer…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Now we are too close. I like the detail on these beams.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The China pavilion will be one of the permanent structures of this Expo; it dominates the Expo and is located smack in the middle of the Expo site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you move away from the China pavilion, the rest of the regions of the world present themselves.\u00a0 You walk through Europe then Latin America.\u00a0 Here you can see the Brazil pavilion with what is supposed to be a soccer game but is actually a Windoze error message on the jumbotron.\u00a0 Embarrassing! For Microsoft…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"IMG<\/a>
Crashing…must be Windoze! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Asia Pacific was represented at the Shanghai Expo. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"IMG<\/a>
North Korea and Iran were next door to each other (!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Besides the exhibits, such as this replica of the Juche Tower in Pyongyang, there were vendors selling currency and stamps, which are in demand by collectors. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Thailand’s pavilion looked, well, Thai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Australia’s looked…antiseptic and modern. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
India’s pavillion looked neat. Both traditional and modern culture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG<\/a>
Taiwan’s looked uber modern<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of course, if you survive the 25 minute trudge from the China pavilion, you will reach the last zone, the Americas.\u00a0 The Canada pavilion actually looked the best; the US pavilion looked like a big advert.\u00a0 Also, no VIP entrance for US passport holders. So no visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"IMG
Oh Jianada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since it was late when we finally got there, we got to do a quick tour through the Expo, only stopping off in countries that didn’t have a queue. All the ones above, save North Korea’s had huge queues so we couldn’t visit. The next Expo is in 10 years. Will plan better then! <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Image via Wikipedia On a whim (back in May), I purchased some round trip tickets from San Francisco to Hong Kong via Vancouver on Air Canada.  The all in price was US$600 which is a real bargain! It’s one hell of a positioning flight but it put me within 2.5 hours of Shanghai and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A brief look at the Shanghai Expo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-overseas-travel","tag-china-mainland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2mgIi-do","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walking-ixus.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}