We survived the Expo!

Yeap..we did and came back to share the tale.

We spent one day at the expo and really, that was not enough at all, but since we only had 1 day to spare, we had to make some choices about what we wanted to see and what we were willing to give up ..(some like the China Paviliion was not a choice at all, cos we just couldn’t get in as the tickets were all given out in 10 mins when we were still trying to get in!)

This is probably the only part of our Shanghai trip that we did some planning about. We bought our tickets in Singapore at CTC Travel. It cost us $36 per ticket which is the same price as what you pay there. The only difference was that we had to get to the Expo site ourselves and we didn’t have any tickets to the “popular pavilions” which usually reserve part of the daily tickets to group tours. You can easily purchased the tickets with local travel agents as well, but do make sure it is one with credentials cos there are fake tickets on sale.

We avoided the crowded main gate of the Expo by taking a cab to Entrance 3 – Bansong yuan Road. This entrance is furthest away from the subway station, so the crowds don’t really use this one. Plus this is located on the Puxi side of the Expo where the smaller exhibits are. But the queue to enter is the shortest, and it took us less than 20 mins to get in. (Tip : Get the English version of the Expo maps outside the entrance. I st ood in queue while S went to get the brochures) It just felt like waiting for your turn for a ride in Disneyland :) It was a moving queue, so it was ok. Although you are not allowed to bring food & water but many people still managed to sneak them in. You can see many families with lots of food having a picnic :)

Our plan was to visit the less crowded places so that we “get” to see some things and to get some stamps. In case you were wondering….Expo has a tradition of issuing ‘passports’ which will be stamped whenever a pavilion was visited. This is to mimic the ‘travel’ experience when in the past travelling was quite difficult. Now it has turned into a “sport” as many people seems to be more interested in the stamps than the exhibits itself. On a more pragmatic not, one fully stamped passport can fetch up to 6000 yuan online…so there is a monetary reason for that rush. If you are keen to join in the fun, I suggest you get the passport from the store at Nanjing East Rd where you get to have more than the usual passport and get one like mine..all for the same price of 30 yuan but looks much prettier and it does get a lot of stares :)

Visiting the City Pavilions on Puxi end was a good choice as the queue was much shorter. We visited Taipei ( where I got a souvienir pic taken and heard Wang Lee Hom sing…he was there!!!!), Paris (where we got 2 black bags from Galeries Lafayette), Hong Kong ( email picture & wrist-strap) and lots of bits of stuff from all over :) i love freebies!! We also visited Liverpool, Barcelona, Suzhou, Osaka…

We had a quick lunch (Pizza and beer!) at one of the booth. We decided on non-Chinese food cos the queue was shorter. Another tip about food is that try to avoid eating between 11am-1pm. Somehow the Chinese seems to want to eat then, and the eateries does get VERY crowded. So you either eat non-Chinese food or eat at odd hours. Another tip, there are lots of water coolers that provide both hot an cold water so just bring a bottle along, or if you want to look like a local, bring a bottle with tea leaves inside, then fill it with hot water :)

We took a ferry to the Pudong end of the Expo was greeted with the sight of the Chinese Pavilion :)

The Pudong part of the Expo is where the country pavilions are. They are also the most crowded!! We had to skip many of the popular booths that included Korea, Japan & Taiwan ( 4 hour wait), USA, all the Asean booths (3 hours) and of course China & Saudi Arabia ( 5 hours). We decided on pavilions that had a “moving” queue so we ended up visiting Australia (one of the best!!), Nepal, New Zealand ( filled with lots of NZ flora!), Canada, Israel, Demark (saw the Little Mermaid sculpture!), Turkey, Slovakia & Cambodia. There were also others that we visited, but didn’t get the stamps….There are also announcements and electronic notice boards that tells you how long you may need to wait for the pavilion, so you can decide if you wanted to spend the time waiting. Thoughtful don’t you think? You will also see many young people standing all over the place ready to answer any questions that you may have…but if you can’t speak in Chinese, you will have to make do with heavy accented English. I have come to the conclusion that Shanghai and the expo is pretty difficult to navigate and understand if you don’t know Chinese :P ( and now thank my Chinese Tuition teacher!)

From right clockwise (Saudi Arabia, Thai, India & Israel)

The Expo is a very big and you do get quite tired walking and waiting, but there are lots of. seats around for a quick rest – Some people take this literally and lie on the benches to sleep! Men & women, boys & girls…everyone does it! There are also shuttle buses that takes you from one end of the expo to another so do catch one of those when you are tired. There is no shortage of food & drinks in the Expo as there are many reasonably priced food courts and restaurants to chose from. Many of them are specially selected to be part of the expo…so you can just catch up on yummy local food at the expo too :)

You would notice that as the evening approaches, it gets quite cool there, so do bring a coat along it you intend to stay until the Expo closes. Although it is supposed to close late, most pavilions would have closed by 9:30pm, with some closing as early as 6pm. So if you have a place that you really want to visit…do it early as you never know if it would be close by the time you get there!

The Shanghai Expo was one of those things that I wanted to do and actually got around to doing it. I have always wanted to visit an Expo since the Brisbane one in 1988. Now that I have been there and done that…I must say it is not what I really expected. I had expected to be immersed in the different cultures of the world but what I realised was that the Expo felt more like a huge NATAS fair, cos many countries were showing how nice their place is …in hope of gaining the interest of the Chinese people and them visiting. Chinese Tourists are the most sought after people in many countries now…really! I guess the exhibits didn’t really resonate with me partly cos I think here in Singapore, we are quite exposed to many different cultures and have visited many different countries plus the fact that I do watch Discovery Travel quite a fair bit.., so the popular pavilions are not really high on my agenda. There are also many pavilions that I had missed out, but looking at it from the outside was good enough, cos some did look better outside then inside!

The Expo at night is really quite beautiful, especially when the lights from the pavilions are turned on. It gives you a whole different feel, much like Shanghai itself. It makes you think you are in a different place altogether. So I suggest..take your time to enjoy the place, don’t can caught up with going to all the pavilions ( which you cannot do in 1 day) or even the popular ones…just browse and see what you want.

We finally ended our day by exiting from the main entrance, where it is nearest to the subway station :) And what a sight greeted us at the exit…the flags of all the nations taking part in this :P