Shanghai PRC: Expo 2010 Day #2

 [Monday May 31]--  We returned to the Expo on our final day in Shanghai, and visited as many pavilions as we could.  Our plan was to stay into the evening (which we did) and witness the fireworks that are done every evening (we didn't stay that long).  The expo was a great place to visit-- I wish we the queues had been shorter such that we could have seen more of the larger pavilions.  However, I found the experience to be worthy of our expense in traveling, and I hope to visit Shanghai again sometime.

The promenade walkway at the expo.  There were two promenades that intersected one another-- they're enormous.  The promenades are elevated steel decks-- there is also a walkway underneath.  (The major promenade also has an additional sunken level that connects to the subway.)  I have tried to imagine how much steel went into the construction of these promenade decks alone.  There were a few electric 6-seat vehicles (like a large golf cart) powered by fuel cells, that shuttled people along the promenades, if you were willing to wait for them.  No people up here--  they are all in the queues trying to get into the pavilions.

Perhaps one of the most interesting, and in my opinion most creative, was the Chile pavilion.  The entire inside was constructed of a sculptured plywood, featuring the natural resources of Chile.  They also were featuring Chilean wines, and had free wine tasting!  Apparently this was an exception-- we were there on the right day at the right time.  We spent some time talking with a couple of the Chilean representatives, who were very friendly and informative.  We were told that, although the earthquake was very destructive, the Chileans are very familiar with earthquakes and will pick themselves up, rebuild, and move on-- quite stoic.  They also said that wine production this year will be very minimal, as one of the primary wine regions of Chile was heavily impacted by the earthquake.  Chile is high on our list of future places to visit--  definitely a fly fishing destination.

Russia pavilion--  large queues to get in

 

Ukraine pavilion.  Their exhibit featured a small cafe style restaurant, where we had lunch.  What else-- chicken Kiev!

 

The United Kingdom pavilion as seen from the Netherlands pavilion.  The U.K. pavilion was "Thousand Points of Light", and built around a theme of a project launched by Kew Gardens in London.  The project plans to archive and catalog plant seeds from around the world, as many species become extinct from climate change.  Nope-- didn't get inside.  Major queues.

 

The Netherlands pavilion.  One of the more bizarre exhibits, this pavilion was a spiral ramp with a number of small exhibit windows that featured both the artistic, agricultural, and technological prowess of The Netherlands.  At first I thought the small window exhibits were art exhibits (one or two were), but then realized that each was a contribution of something from the Netherlands.  One window showed a large steel diamond covered cable--  a section of a cable used to slice apart and recover the soviet submarine Kursk from deep water.  Another exhibit appeared to be a gas pump.  In reality, it is a water purification system developed by a Dutch company that can be brought to disaster areas to dispense purified water.

 

Fill 'er up-- Not petrol, but water. This is the distribution end of a water purification system that can be brought into disaster areas to purify and pump water for victims in areas where the water supply has been fouled.

What would a Netherlands exhibit be without tulips? I thought they were artificial at first, but no, they are the real thing.

 A flock of plastic sheep, grazing on indoor/outdoor carpet-- a tribute to The Netherlands agriculture no doubt. These were present underneath the elevated pavilion, and popular with the Chinese kids to sit on (as intended).

For anyone planning to attend the Expo, my suggestion would be to go in the evenings.   Shanghai is a city of lights, and the Shanghai Expo has followed this lead.  The pavilions are spectacular at night.

Malaysia Pavilion

Norway Pavilion

  

Ukraine Pavilion

United Nations Pavilion

The Lupu Bridge--  the lights on this bridge, which crosses directly over the Expo site, change colors.  The bridges and buildings light shows in Shanghai are almost as good as a fireworks show.  This picture also shows the promenade walkway, which connects the various sections of the expo.

Chinese Gardens--  The Expo site included a Chinese Garden, which was a great place for people to relax and take a break from the queues and walking about the pavilions.  There were bird cages (See Shanghai:  The French Concession) and bonsai plants and art-rock.

Turtle Rock--  This rock, among others is natural (not carved) and has a striking resemblance to a turtle.  There were others-- one that looked like an elephant.

Shanghai PRC: French Concession Walking Tour

[Sunday May 30]--   We allocated the second of our three days in Shanghai to do a bit of touring-- to see a little of the city, and a bit of shopping.  We decided to follow the Lonely Planet:  Shanghai guide book walking tour of an area called the French Concession.  This is an old part of Shanghai city not far from our hotel.  The French Concession was a district of Shanghai allocated to France by treaty from 1849 to 1943 during the imperialist expansion of western nations into China.  This was an arrangement (similar to the 99 year lease of Hong Kong and Macao to Britain) which allowed the U.S. and European nations to have trade centers and colonies within China.  The arrangement ended with the Japanese invasion of China.  The French Concession district was a stylish and affluent area of Shanghai in the 1900s through the 1920s.
With tour book in hand, and overly confident of finding our way about the city after successful travel on the subway the prior day, way headed for the train, plotted our route, and got off at our desired train stop.  We exited the train station, and were immediately lost.  Not so much lost, but unable to follow and find the path detailed in Lonely Planet.  One thing we have learned in Singapore is that it is important to know which exit from the subway station should be taken--  it is possible to get very disoriented and be a block or more off from your target destination if you do not pay attention to this detail.  Unfortunately Lonely Planet was not forthcoming in providing this very detail in their walking tout.  We ran into a Dutch couple with a guide book in hand, who were also obviously trying to find their bearings too.  After wandering around for a few blocks, we eventually synchronized our location with the walking tour in the guide book, and off we went.
The walking tour leads you to several interesting areas within the district-- a renovated area that is now a POSH restaurant and boutique area, apparently popular with expats and tourists was our first stop.  In this area there was a museum of a classic style house called the Shikuman Long-Tangs (literal translation-- "stone gate") of the district.  The tour leads to several important buildings and parks in the area, including Sun Yat-Sen's house.  (Sun Yat-Sen was the revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the Quing dynasty in 1911 and became the first president of the Nationalist government of China).  The tour also led to Zou Enlai's house, but we skipped this segment.

We had lunch at a wonderful small restaurant at the back of an old hotel grounds, overlooking a pond and garden. By the end of the tour, we were very tired and ready to be back at our hotel. It was a great tour, albeit a very small section of Shanghai.

Graffiti?   I presumed this was graffiti, but possibly not.  It is the only thing like it that I saw--  a relatively clean city, although not to the level of Singapore.  If it is graffiti, I think this displays significantly more talent than the typical tagging seen in the U.S.

A restored building in the Xintiandi boutique/restaurant shop district of the French Concession

Elaine at the entrance of Fuxing Gongyuan Park

A tribute to Westerners?   Marx and Engels of course

St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church--  Built in 1936 to service the large number of Russian emigrants coming to Shanghai in the 1930s.  The church escaped demolition during the cultural revolution, and has been used as a restaurant and a washing machine factory.  It currently is closed, and a guard (looking very bored) sits in front to prevent vandalism.

Sun Yat-Sen's residence--  now a museum.

Sun Yat-Sen residence-- front entry

Sun Yat-Sen Residence-- backyard

No trumpet Playing!--  The driveway to an old estate house along the walking tour

Lion (and Lioness) at the hotel/restaurant where we had lunch

Old and the New Shanghai--  Among the 21st century Shanghai, there are still vestiges of older times.  This vendor has his store on the back of his bicycle.  The cart is overloaded with brooms, dusters, mops, etc.  The Fuller Brush Man?  The woman is apparently a local customer who came out of the nearby building to make a purchase. There are also scrap collectors that use similar manual transport, moving about the shops collecting cardboard and plastic for recycling.

Moller House-- Swedish shipping magnate Eric Moller built this house, finally completed in 1949.  It housed the Communist Youth League for a while, and is now a hotel.  Moller delayed finishing its construction, having been told by a fortune teller he would meet his demise upon its completion .  He died in a plane crash in 1954.

Jingjiang Hotel--  (ca 1931)  The Shanghai diplomatic community were held under house arrest during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in 1941.

Lobby of the Okura Garden Hotel (ca 1921)  Art Deco hotel in the French Concession

Russian Orthodox Mission Church-- (ca 1931)

Sensible Shoes-- High fashion in Shanghai.  Hot pink and overalls.

Donghu Hotel--  Not quite the Great Wall of China, but fairly imposing.  This estate, with imposing iron walls was once the home of a reputed gangster of Shanghai.  Now a hotel.

Birds are a traditional pet for the Chinese--  they often accompany their owner to tea houses when out on the town, and displayed in ornate cages (these are not the ornate cages).  These birds were just hanging around outside a shop. 

Shanghai PRC: Expo 2010 Day #1

[Weds 2-Jun-2010]--  We returned yesterday after spending a (long) weekend in Shanghai, an impulsive but rewarding trip with a primary intent to attend Expo 2010.  The Expo is similar or same as a world's fair.  The Expo, along with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is the coming out debutante party for the People's Republic of China (PRC), proving to the world that China has come of age in the modern world.  Having grown up through Mao's cultural revolution, the ping-pong diplomacy of the Nixon years, Tiananmen Square, and most recently the 2008 Olympics, China has made a lot of changes in my time.  Admittedly it felt a little odd to be planning this trip, as memories from my youth of the closed society of the PRC carried over.  However, upon arrival, it felt no different than any of the other countries we have visited.  Shanghai is of course, a "special economic zone" of the PRC which may make the difference.  Some future trip to Beijing and/or the rural areas of China may display something considerably different.  However, from this perspective, Friedman is correct-- the world is flat.
A visa is required to visit PRC, which we were able to acquire in Singapore.  Most other countries allow up to a 90 day visit without a visa, however PRC is not one of these.  The visa is inexpensive for most foreigners, e.g. S$30 for Singapore citizens.  However, if you are from the U.S.A. get ready to pay--  the visa is S$180 (about US$125).

Shanghai is a city of about 20 million, substantially larger than Singapore.  It is about a 5 hour flight from Singapore, or would be if you flew direct.  We purchased discount tickets, so our route and flight time was substantially longer--  a set of flights stopping in Bangkok, Thailand and Hong Kong before reaching Shanghai.   Fortunately there were no political disruptions at the airport in Bangkok, as this stop was not well advertised on our ticket at the time of purchase (The flight time WAS suspiciously long).  And, of course our flight from Hong Kong was late to leave, thus causing us to arrive in Shanghai and finally reach our hotel in downtown Shanghai at about 3 AM.  (The Pudong airport is a 40 minute taxi ride to downtown Shanghai).

The view from our 19th floor hotel room.  Our hotel was very well located--  across the street from Century Square, and four blocks from People's Square, a major subway hub and station.  (Apparently nearly every major city in China has a "people's square" or park).  Century Square is located on Nanjing Road, which is a pedestrian-only street with many POSH shops, stores, and restaurants.  This is THE place to be in the evenings-- there are many people making the walk.  Nanjing Road runs into The Bund  (literally translated-- The Beach) which is actually a levee walkway along the river.  This is a spectacular area at night, and a common destination for tourists.

Century Square and Nanjing Road.  Not so many people on it during the day.

After a few hours sleep, and a StarBucks coffee (they are everywhere-- including PRC!) we were awake sufficiently to head for the expo.  This required getting to the subway station, purchasing a ticket, and getting on the proper train.  This turned out to be extremely simple.  We traveled four stops and arrived at the station located at the main gate of the expo.  As we entered the expo site, we were very optimistic--  there was infrastructure in place to handle extremely large crowds at the gate, but none were present.  However, once in the gate, and up onto the main arena (away from the subway entry gate) our optimism was dashed as we saw enormous queues of people.

The cattle chute gates at the main entrance of the Expo--  The expo officials are obviously anticipating huge crowds at the gates-- which thankfully for us were absent.  (Little did we know that they were actually already at the expo!)

The expo site is enormous--  it is arranged in five sections (A through E), with one of the sections (section E) on the far side of the river.  Everything is in large scale--  large buildings and an extremely long elevated steel walkway, with signature towers with tall awnings.   It is a design achievement, and amazing.  It represents an approximately US$6B investment for China.

Expo 2010 Map

The expo opened at the beginning of May, and attendance at the expo has been down substantially from the anticipated and hoped (actually required for a break-even investment) for crowds of about 300,000 people per day.  To boost attendance, residents of Shanghai were given free tickets.   Our decision to come to China to the expo was made around a thought that the expo would only become more crowded as the summer wears on-- the show runs through October.  On this day-- our first day, as luck would have it, the expo reached its all-time-to-date best attendance record of 550,000.  I might have guessed  larger-- it seemed like all of China, or at least the entire population of Shanghai was there.  Each of the pavilions, particularly the larger countries, and in particular the Asian nations had large queues-- some would require waiting literally hours to get through.  We learned that it was possible to get reservations for some of the pavilions at reservation machines, but never saw one-- only the signs for their existence.  We later learned that these machines also required queuing very early in the morning, to secure a reserved entry time at one or more of the pavilions.

Despite the large crowds, we managed to get into many of the pavilions, and have lunch at one of the restaurants, with little or no wait in queue.

No-- this isn't Smurf Gumby.  This is Haibo, the mascot of the Shanghai Expo 2010

In Singapore, it is relatively easy to get about without speaking or reading Chinese-- English is the official "administrative" language.  In Shanghai it is possible (we did it) but a little more difficult, as there are fewer places using English.  It was perhaps on par with our language barrier in Japan.  Shanghai is a very strong center of commerce (hopeful to be the financial/commerce hub of Asia) so English is very prevalent-- street signs are in both Mandarin and English.  I am certain that outside of Shanghai it is more difficult to get about without knowing some Mandarin.
Our trip, although brief was great fun and well worth our time.  I will provide some pictures and details of our visit in the remainder of this post, and on subsequent posts.

[Saturday May 29]-- On this first day we visited the pavilions of some of the Asian nations-- Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Timore, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Maldives, and saw several others from the outside. We quickly gave up attempting to visit the China and Japan pavilions, as these were enormously popular and were extremely crowded, as were nearly all of the major nation pavilions.

The China Pavilion-- one of the largest and most visible pavilions at the Expo.  Nope--  we didn't get inside, as we would likely still be waiting in the queue.  Just a few of the attendees at the expo.

One of the boulevards at the expo and a few visitors, as viewed from the elevated walkway that dissects the center of the expo site.  Note the assembly of people with parasols  (hot day!).  These folks are queued to get into the Japan pavilion.  Japan was popular, as its theme featured Transformers, a hit with the children. 

 

 Nepal Pavilion

Inside the Vietnam pavilion.  This pavilion was well done, with a wonderful decor of bamboo.

Wood carving at the Vietnam exhibit.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) pavilion.  On this day in the news, North Korea was taking a lot of heat from world governments for allegedly torpedoing a South Korea navy corvette, creating a scare in the world markets, and a real possibility of war.  No queues at this pavilion-- it was closed on this day.  Coincidence? 

The expo site actually spanned the river, with Section E located on the far side of the river.  With our limited time we chose not to go to this section, which featured a number of corporate pavilions, such as Coca Cola and General Motors.  One means of reaching Section E is via ferry, although there is also an entry gate from the city.  Given the density of people on the ferry, I think I'm OK that we skipped this.  The Coca Cola pavilion was apparently quite interesting-- a operative replica of one of their bottling plant in action.  Do you suppose they were making the Coca Cola recipe available?