Legendary World Expo Trip in Shanghai

First of all, my Shanghai Expo tour should be some kind of legendary, but not romantic. The expo park is so large and it should be a challenge physical strength. The result shows that I precisely predicted that situation. In fact, my trip is legendary because of a surprise in the end of 2009. I was lucky to get a ticket for the opening ceremony of Shanghai Expo in an exhibition fair, just like I won a prize in lottery. I then booked the ticket for other two days for me and my husband. I am really proud of my foresight when I visit the park. One day is not enough at all.

Fireworks in the Opening Ceremony

We left from Guangzhou to Shanghai Pudong April 30 morning. I booked hotel and flights one and a half months ago. It is much cheaper. After having a rest in the hotel and dinner outside in a restaurant, we intended to go to the expo park in the afternoon. At 6pm, audiences are guided by volunteers to enter the park and got into the Performing Art Center. The ceremony and show began at 8pm. I was happy to see a cheerful and short performance with only ten but amazing songs. After that, audiences moved to the outdoor venue on the bank of Huangpu River to see the light and firework show. The show is fabulous and something also magnificent is the crowds, especially when the opening was finished around 10pm. Our budge hotel (not good in fact) is near the expo park, so we could walk back to the hotel. Some hotels offer free shuttle bus service for their guests, which I believe is also a good idea to avoid the large visitor flow in peak hours. Get to sleep as soon as possible, for the next day tour was thought to be tough.

outside Theme Pavilion

It was May 1, first day of May Day Holidays and the first opening day for Shanghai Expo. I was later told that there were totally 200,000 visitors that day. Shanghai subway is convenient and no matter how convenient the Expo public transportation is, it is hard to tell while facing so large amount of visitors. We were in a bit of flap in the first day. We entered from Pudong. There were already a lot of people making long queues there. Reservation ticket for China Pavilion was not available. It was said that the tickets are given out in ten minutes when the park is just opened!! In fact, Puxi is less crowded. We refused to join the long line which has to wait more than one hour. Saving time is important. We were impressed with Japanese Pavilion, Pavilions of Urban Footprint and the Future. Nearby the Theme Pavilion is the triangle building of New Zealand Pavilion. The 1.8T jade stone in the entrance is really enticing.

French Pavilion was the first pavilion that we need to wait in the long queue. It was nearly 1.5 hours, standing outside the pavilion. We had shifts: I had a rest when my husband stood in line. Then we take turns. It seems many pavilions in Pudong need to do this, including UK Pavilion, which I was most interested in. So, we gave up many popular pavilions. I did not see perfume in French. We cheated by the propaganda?!

We decided to take ferry to Puxi to see enterprises; pavilions. Vanke Pavilion is nice. We saw the future city mode in 2049. There was a 6D screen in State Grid Pavilion, which made me dazzling. We also experienced earthquake in Broad Pavilion. There are many squares within the park. Beverage stands are easy to find. Drinks are not expensive and I am happy for that. Food is so expensive there. Fortunately, we brought our own food. Find a shade in the squares and have a rest, admire African songs and other performance. I thought that is more pleasing than visiting a pavilion.

future city mode made of wasted items

The night fell. We get back to Pudong. I should admit that the nightscape was really amazing. The Sunshine Valley, Expo Axis, fountain along the Huangpu River, etc looked good. Some busy pavilions, such as New Zeland and Australia, you may as well put them in night plan. It is cool and visitors are much less. It was said that the expo park is closed till 24:00, but you would be asked to leave at 22:00. Well arrange your time!

We had one day off to see around Shanghai, including the Bund, Yuyuan Garden, Xintiandi. Well, shopping was a must, of course. Got back to hotel early that night, for we would have an early and final visit to the expo! My purposes: precious painting (Chinese Symphonic Picture Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival) in China Pavilion (This is the top state treasure!), and Cirque du Soleil in Canada Pavilion.

We got to the entrance at 8:30! Wow, there were already twisting lines here. I doubted if I can get the ticket to China Pavilion for there were many people would like to get one. When I pass the security check, a guard in black uniform gave us two tickets! I was surprise that the things seemed happen to us so fast. I was just saying that we are so lucky! At this time, I found we had to visit China Pavilion in different times. Times printed in the tickets are different. We changed one ticket with a lady. We would see China Pavilion at 3:30pm. Time is not loose for our flight was at 7pm. Anyway, this was a good start.

The sphere screen in Earth Pavilion was amazing. We waited for an hour to enter German Pavilion and it was really worth waiting. Italia Pavilion is fine too, more interesting than French Pavilion. Canada Pavilion disappointed me because Cirque du Soleil did not show up at all. US Pavilion looks not creative and special. Short movies were great. Do not miss it. We found shuttle bus to China Pavilion. The bus stoped at Expo Axis, very close to China Pavilion then. After that, we had a quick view on Vietnam, Burma, Korea and Iran pavilions. It was time to leave. We chose to leave from Exit 4, for there was Expo Bus Line 15 which can take us to Pudong Airport directly. The vehicle is VOLVO, very nice. Only five passengers on the bus, very nice!

Well, forget one thing! It is better to pick a performance plan of that day when you visit, apart from the expo park map. Parades and shows are sometimes more interesting. That is something really culture based.

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