World Expo - Pt 1.

The main reason we came to Shanghai was to visit the World Expo. It was quite extraordinary – we were one of 450,000 people who visited today (and in 35 C heat too!). My last Expo visit was back in 1988 when it was in Brisbane, Australia. I loved visiting all the pavilions as a kid and getting my expo passport stamped by the different countries. This time, visiting as an adult (& international traveller), it seemed dare I say -  it a bit less relevant for us.  Mainly, because I have had the firsthand opportunity to visit and work in various countries around the world.

It definitely makes me appreciate how lucky we are in the ‘west’. I still thoroughly enjoyed Expo – just watching the 'locals' come from all over China. It's so great for them to be able to see and be exposed to the different countries of the world. Though they didn’t seem that interested in reading much of the info; they appeared to be more focused on getting their photos taken in different pavilions and getting their Expo passports stamped. We're all the same even though we're from different cultures. The queues averaged about 3 – 4 hrs long but the longest we queued was about 30 mins. Obviously we didn’t go to all of them – probably about 10 in total. 

The China Pavilion was massive but you needed to get a ticket at the gates just to get in as there were just so many people. I loved the Denmark one - they even shipped over the Little Mermaid from Copenhagen. And we loved the Australian one too including all the cultural cringe! It was very cleverly pitched to the Chinese and they loved it.

The Expo Mascot "Haibao" which means treasure of the sea.

The Danish Pavilion with a bike track

The Pavilion spiralled around the Little Mermaid

Spanish Pavilion

was covered with hand weaved wicker

Inside was a multi media interactive show about spanish life

Inside the Czech Pavilion

The Rwanda Pavilion - this is the closest he'll probably ever get a gorilla.