Is the Shanghai 2010 World Expo Worth It?
Giant rabbit says no. Well… it’s more complicated than that. Because rabbits don’t talk. Even giant ones. It’s hard to fairly review the Shanghai World Expo, though, since one’s enjoyment of it largely depends on your tolerance for crowds. Big, noisy, spitting, smoking crowds. The expo racks in over 400,000 visitors every day, mostly Chinese. I went on a mild Thursday. It was raining. 438,000 people still showed up.
The lines to go into the different countries’ pavilions are ridiculously long. Popular pavilions like the US, Canada, and Japan frequently run into five hour waits while the notorious Saudi Arabia pavilion has been rumored to reach as long as nine hours. What could possibly be in there that’s so interesting?! Nothing, I bet. While I only had time to see the inside of four buildings (France, Poland, Finland, and China’s space pavilion), I was not impressed with any of them. They mostly showed videos. I can watch videos of your country on Youtube! Oh, wait. I’m in China. No, I can’t…
As I was preparing to see the expo, I knew the lines would be long, and I wouldn’t get to see much. I was never interested in what was going on inside the buildings, anyway. I just wanted to see the outside. Some of them were simple cubes with pictures painted on the side, but other countries really went the extra mile to display something truly creative. Take England, for example. What on earth is this thing?
Russia’s building was rather big and ominous, too:
But the Netherlands had “Happy Town” that looked like loads of fun… until the whole thing collapses and kills 10,000 people. At least that would mean 10,000 fewer people in the Saudi Arabia line.
My favorite pavilion, however, was Korea:
The theme for the expo is “Better city, better life.” The expo grounds really do feel like a little city (walk the whole thing and you’ll see), but a better city? Hardly. The streets were dirty and smelled bad, and the popularity of the expo makes seeing everything impossible unless you’re willing to go every day for a month (a feat that’d cost around $700). Bottom line: I wouldn’t make a trip to China just to see the expo, but if you’re already here for whatever reason, it’s worth a visit just to check out the crazy buildings and see what all the fuss is about.
Response to “Is the Shanghai 2010 World Expo Worth It?”
Comments RSS Feed – All Commentsdallasallad — 27 June 2010 @ 9:15 pm
That’s so cool you got to go to the expo. I was either reading about it in National Geographic, or listening to something on NPR–or maybe both–talking about how those buildings would only be there for a short time, and then they will tear them down when the expo is over.
Comment: