Expo Time

posted by Alan
click on pictures to see them full sized

Last post exposed how many people DON'T actually read this blog, but they only see the update status on Facebook or Google buzz. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, although you're 6 months late. However, feel free to say happy belated to Daisy, who actually wrote the last blog entry.


So I got a new job. My contract ended with my previous company and shortly after, I was offered the position of Community Coordinator for the 2010 World Expo. It's an INCREDIBLE opportunity to be working on the biggest event in the world. I've already met with business owners, pavilion directors and just people from around the world, and the Expo has barely begun. This summer is going to be a memorable one, for sure.

I've posted about the Expo in a previous post, but until I started working on it, I had no idea of how big of an event this really is. Seventy MILLION visitors are projected to be coming over the six month span. Think about how many people that is. It's like the number of Yankees NOT on Performance Enhancing Drugs times seventy million. Over 200 countries built multi-million dollar Pavilions to showcase themselves to the rest of the world, daily performances, foods from all over the world. It's going to be a non-stop party atmosphere and was described to me as "the place everyone is going to want to be for the next six months." I know many people in America aren't quite as excited over World Expo's, but if you have this blog on your Google Reader (as you should by now), prepare to be given a glimpse of the excitement this thing brings.

Me & Dominic at the China Pavilion; Shanghai Expo Performance Center

Australia and Germany Pavilions

Suzanna and her Brazilian Pavilion; the insane looking England Pavilion


The Expo officially opened last night with a 35 minute fireworks and laser show over the Huang Pu River that was unlike anything I've ever seen. How they coordinated the fireworks, music, fountains, lasers, spotlights and everything else is incredible. If there's one thing China knows how to do, it's Opening Ceremonies. Check it out on Youtube:Shanghai Expo Opening Ceremony. Last week, there was an Expo test opening, with about 100,000 tickets passed out to the public. Through some connections, I got my golden ticket.

Quick impressions:
- It's HUGE World Event. I've heard of World's Fair's(now called Expo) before, but like many Americans, I never had any real idea of how big they really are. Ironically, a majority of past World's Fair's have taken place IN America. It's a massive cultural exchange fair that is bigger in scale than the Olympics. Among landmarks that are left-over from past World's Fair's are the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle in Seattle and the globe and that weird Star Wars looking thing in Flushing Meadows Park.
- The Expo itself is huge in size. It's like a small, surreal (the pavilions are crazy looking) city. Almost like a movie set. We were there for 8 hours and only saw about 65% of it. And this is without going into most of the pavilions.
- I can already anticipate the fooood. Not everything was open because it was a pre-launch, but just seeing the food pavilions and restaurants from all the different countries got me excited.
- There really ARE 1 billion people in China. I think they were all at the Expo when I was there.
- When I saw the USA pavilion, i felt a surge of patriotism that I wasn't really aware was there before.

USA! USA!; The massive Africa Pavilion (the different countries have pavilions inside)

Canada & Spain Pavilions

Thailand Pavilion; giant optical ball in the German Pavilion that moves towards the loudest sounds

Thai food pavilion and Belgian Fries. Just a sampling of the foods that are going to be here. MMmmmMmmm.


You can check out an extensive, interactive 3D virtual model of the entire Expo and all of the Pavilions at www.expo.cn.
Check out the official Expo trailer here.

Looking forward to Steven, Gen, Laureen, Jimmy, Megan and whoever else also plans on coming this summer. Summertime in Shanghai is always fun, but this summer is going to be even better.

Let's Go Mets.