The Shanghai 2010 Expo
During conversations about the expo, we never had any inclination of the mammoth setup of the expo. I imagined that it would be a grand fair, one we could spend about 6-7 hours and finish off. When another of my colleagues suggested that three days may not be sufficient to see it completely, I attributed it to an exaggeration. On Tuesday 15th Jun 2010, I understood that it was not so. We spent about 5 hours there at the expo and could cover only one pavilion completely and about 10 percent of the Chinese pavilion.
The constructions done at the expo site is simply amazing! The entire area of the expo is more than 5 square kilometers. Just to walk this area would take time, let alone sight-seeing. The arrangements, from ticket counters, security gates/checks, stairs, walkways and elevators to the pavilions themselves was a sight I am glad I did not miss. The number of people visiting at the expo was huge. Families with toddlers and grandparents (or maybe even great grand) were to be seen. Toddlers with prams or older people would not face a problem in moving about because there were escalators and elevators to navigate the various levels. I even saw a couple of folks on wheelchairs too. No liquids were allowed inside. I had to throw away my bottle of unopened minute maid at the security gate. But there were lots of options inside the expo.
Each country has a separate building(pavilion) to showcase the countries angle at the expo. Each pavilion has been built as a characteristic and personality of the country. The Indian pavilion is built with bamboos. A huge structure with about three floors inside. We had to wait at the entrance counter for about an hour in a serpentine queue with about 5 folds. My friend told me that the Chinese lady in front of us waited at the Japanese entrance for about 3 hours before her turn to enter in. According to the expo site, which displays the number of people at the previous day, we had about 552,000 people visiting on 15th jun.
The Indian Pavilion.
After an hours wait in the queue, we got to get into the Indian Pavilion. Immediately inside, there was a stage setup with seats(or rather benches) arranged in an arc. Most of the seats were already occupied as were the standing area. So we made our way to the second floor to have a view of whats going on on the stage. Soon enough, bollywood song started to play and a dance troupe were dancing to the tune. The Chinese seem to be enjoying it since they were cheering the artists all through. Towards the end of the show, the tune changed to a bhangara beat, and the artists were inviting some of the Chinese onto the stage to dance with them. :) a few including children came up on the stage. After the show, the artists were more or less mobbed by the crowd, most of them wanting to take pictures with them.
On the top floor, we had a hall where various Indian artifacts were arranged and also collateral's on Indian science, culture, important personalities etc were on display. A very good video was also shown on a screen setup that I saw for the first time. The screen was in the middle of the hall with benches around the screen in a square. The screen itself was translucent and the video when displayed seemed to be in 3D but at the center of the room.
On the ground floor, there were more stalls, some from where people could buy bangles, jewellery, pictures, other show pieces etc. Most of these stalls were managed by Chinese. Only very few Indian's were around. It made sense since most of the people visiting were Chinese, I saw very very few foreigners at all in the Expo.
The Chinese Pavilion and other pavilions.
The Chinese Pavilion had a very nice construction. Almost like an inverted pyramid. We were only able to cover the ground floor and that to about 80 percent of this. This floor was a display from the various provinces of China. All the provinces had stalls dedicated to display of speciality of their own. We did not have time to go into any other floor. We saw many other pavilions of wonderful shapes and construction. A recreation building was shaped like a flying saucer. All these from outside these buildings. In front of each of these we were able to see huge lines of people standing patiently awaiting their turn.
By this time, it was pretty late and we were all tired from the walking we had done. So we had some dinner and made our way back to the substation amongst the sea of people moving out of the expo.If you are visiting Shanghai during this time, do visit the Expo. My pictures of the expo are available here.
Comments
Post a Comment