China’s Journey into World Expo Land – Opportunity Lost?

It’s been a long time between jottings here on the blog (Chinese New Year in Hong Kong being the last one).  Slackness you may say?  Hell YES!  That said though, work actually got hectic there for a while with the end of financial year stuff, and before that I was spending a lot of time trying to come up with lame excuses to explain my lack of blogging.

And it’s not like we have had nothing to talk about.  Since the last blog, as well as the usual life stuff we have done an Easter trip to Yangshuo and a trip with Amy’s parents to Xinjiang.  I’ll be getting onto those later (throwing the timeline out of whack in the process), but thought that our recent experiences would make a good return to the blogging festivities.

And our very recent experiences are as fresh as a kid’s number 2 on a Chinese street corner in Beijing, as we wrap up our trip to World Expo in Shanghai that we undertook a few weeks ago.

Amy’s trip to Expo had been planned for months as she was down here all that week for her work event promoting all things animal and plant as part of a big event in the Australian Pavilion.  As part of this she also got easy access to a lot of the bigger more popular pavilions that most mere mortals wouldn’t bother with unless you have a PhD in patience and the Lord of the Rings trilogy on hand (like the Saudi Arabia pavilion, where the lineup is approximately 7hrs long, and the Italy pavilion).

The Guihot Family Expo

So with Amy already in town for the work function Maddy and I had plans to fly down on Friday afternoon and meet Amy at the airport, then head out to the Expo site and enjoy the cooler temperature and taking advantage of the late closing time of the site (midnight – certainly great for my nocturnal lifestyle preference).  Unfortunately our weekend in Shanghai started as it usually does – with a delayed flight leaving Beijing over 1.5hrs late.

When we finally made it to Shanghai it was like walking out of the airport in Cairns in the middle of summer, but with a pollution layer that makes the Beijing Benzene blanket look like a bad Canberra air pollution day.  It was 7pm by this time and still 33 degrees with a humidity level nearing 100 percent - unpleasant to say the least.

By the time we finally found our way to one of the Expo gates it was around 8.00pm, and we realized then that we had entered on the opposite side of the river to the country pavilions.  Around us at this stage were the corporate pavilions, many of them shut for the night.  While not even on our radar in terms of visiting priority I do understand they do give away some cool free stuff to visitors, so if we go back again I'm definitely off to the Nokia pavilion (or the Finland Pavilion - same thing, I hear).  So after managing to find one of the Expo buses we hopped on board to the other side of the river via the tunnel, and headed towards the America’s and Africa area.  First stop, Canada EH!

For me the idea of World Expo as a way to promote your county’s business and tourism opportunities is now a bit outdated, as there are many mediums now available to do this.  Trade forums are all over the place, and the Internet has changed the way the world communicates and markets itself.  But the Expo still provides a good opportunity for countries to shows potential visitors why they should thing about their country as a holiday destination – call it one big expensive travelling show, and while you may disagree, when you add in the restaurants at the exit door of most pavilions selling the country’s national dish and the souvenir shops that’s more the reality.  The really well thought out pavilions will not only add in some detail about the history and culture of the nation, but also present it in such a way that people actually receive the message during what is often a 15min single walkthrough of the pavilion.

So, with the outside of its pavilion decked out in Canadian Maple and the promise of poutine at the end the Canadian pavilion was promising.  Except it wasn’t.  As much as I love the country and its people (of which a few are friends and family), their whole presentation to the rest of the world (and mainly to China) comprised of some futuristic looking exercise bikes which were connected to a screen of scenery, and some art house film presentation about the wannabe French people of Montreal (want to be French?  Then just learn how to surrender).  It is not to say that the potential wasn’t there.  Instead of showing scenes of a road when you pedaled the bike, why not show scenes that display the breathtaking views of Canada – the sounds of Vancouver, the dense forests of BC, the plains of the prairies and the sparseness of Nunavut.  And if they had a mountain bike option, then even BETTER!  Sure the theme of the Expo was “Better living, Better city”, so they were trying to espouse their green transport creds, but I didn’t see much written stuff about their plans for a bike transport plan.

But there was always the poutine, right?  WRONG!  What came out was a mix of chips and gravy and cut cubes of cheddar or tasty cheese on top.  It was not even a shadow of the ‘poutine’ I had found recently at Let’s Burger down the road from us in Beijing.  The poutine I remember from Canada had the real cheese curd on the top, and not some locally produced Bega copy that looked like it belonged next to some sliced cabanossi and Jatz crackers on a party platter (rather than a vital part of what is one of Canada’s unofficial national dishes and a vital gift to the gastronome world).

The poutine offering from the Canadian Pavilion - so close, yet so far.

From ‘Eh to ¡Andale! ¡Andale! ¡Arriba!

After Canada, and with the night quickly passing we decided to head to the South American part of the site and check out Chile, which Amy had told me was great because they were REALLY promoting their wine and their food.  Two things that drive my very existence most days.  While the USA pavilion was looking very alive still it was also looking very popular, so we wandered down past the lines and did the virtual crossing of the border into the Latin parts of the Americas towards Chile and Venezuela.

But alas we were too late, as many of the pavilions in the area had closed up for the night.  But as luck would have it the Mexico pavilion was still alive and pumping.  Now if there is any country that needs to promote itself to visitors at the moment it is Mexico, where the northern regions are losing people by the cartel-load.  And what an awesome job they did.  By this time of the week Amy had seen quite a few of the more popular pavilions, but Mexico got her pick as the best one so far with its combination of great film about the countryside, regions, activities and landscapes followed by some exhibitions of art, sculpture and rockwork by some of its previous and VERY previous residents. 

The 1000 year old Mayan stone wall on display in the Mexico pavilion.  Hit me with a bit of Awe, it did.

SLOVENIA

To be honest before we met our Slovenian friend here in Beijing we didn’t know where Slovenia was – in fact, we knew little about it.  And that’s not to say we became experts after we met her, except for the trivial facts like its small but valued 35km of coastline.  But when we found the Slovenian pavilion parked (somewhat out of place) in the middle of the African pavilions and with no lines we decided to give it a go.  And what a pick it was.  Very simple in concept, and relying on images of its natural beauty to sway the visitor it certainly worked for us.  Alot of the places in the pics were places our friend had mentioned before - the caves like the ones we visited when we holidayed in Yangshuo with her, and the place where she has already booked in her wedding when the lucky guy finally comes along.  And with its close proximity to northern Italy, Cheq and Croatia ideas started forming in our heads.

Maddy pointing out our next holiday destination at the Slovenia pavilion (Bled).

In the meantime the pavilions were really starting to close their doors in increasing numbers by this stage so we thought it was time to call it a night and head home.  Unfortunately so did half the population of China who were also at Expo that night, so upon seeing the 100metre taxi queue we decided to wander around and managed to find a subway station to get us back to the hotel.

Europe, South America and North Africa on a Shoestring

The next day we decided that it was too hot to go to Expo during the day so decided to leave it until 4pm to head off.  In the mean time we had some hours to kill, so we made great use of the hotel pool and then wandered down to the Bund and to check out some of the behemoth skyscrapers around the place (including the famous landmark Pearl Tower), and just missed getting caught in the mother of all storms.  The Bund is the section of downtown Shanghai that lies beside the river, and is where the big businesses have set up shop top show off their success and their desire to pay higher rents than anyone else in town.  As we found out, the architecture along the river front is far from the traditional Chinese, and shows China's long exposure to the west with some great English architecture.  But the real 'gem' on the Bund really needs to be the Bund Tunnel experience, which for all intensive purposes is a living (and almost breathing) embodiment of the boat ride from the original Willy Wonker and the Chocolate Factory (the only version ever made, as far as I am concerned).  It came complete with the nightmare noises and the feeling one might get after some LSD with their morning Weetbix, and with more flashing lights than an 80's Blue Light school disco it was almost enough to cause headaches.

Later that evening we learnt from our mistakes the previous day and headed right to the entrance of the park that would give us the most direct access to the pavilions, and started the wander towards the centre of the site.  Along the way we picked up where we had left off with the South American precinct, visiting Peru, Venezuela, Columbia, Cuba, Luxembourg, Algeria, Tunisia, Netherlands, Chili, Spain (which was our favorite, especially the cue jumper who got owned by the security guard and got put back into line), and finally good old Australia.  Somewhere in between we also ducked into one of the bigger pavilions which housed smaller setups for all of the Caribbean countries, including one for Haiti whose setup fee had been donated by the Expo organisers. It was though a very ho-hum affair for most of them.  I was hoping to attend a banking information session at the Grand Caymans stand but none were offered.  I did though get very excited when I came across the Jamaican 'pavilion' and found them selling Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, but got unexcited shortly thereafter when I found they were selling them for around AU$640 per kilo.

The massive moving baby robot at the Spanish pavilion.  The more noise the crowd made, the more interactive it became.

Maddy and Amy enjoying a sit-down and rest at the Chile pavilion, waiting for the good stuff to come from the bar.

So how was the Aussie one?  Better than what I’d heard.  With a combination of presentations featuring the indigenous inhabitants and also about colonization it provided that mix of interaction with a bit of comedy.  But it was the aspects of the pavilion unrelated to the displays that really gave it legendary status among the other pavilions – firstly, it was the last one open among all the Oceania ones by a long shot, as a local house band played every night while you could sit back and knock down pies and Aussie beers and wine, and secondly, there was a stand selling Aussie beers right next to the line up out the front.

From the "Where did we come from" exhibit at the Aussie Pavilion, and one that got former PM Bob Hawke a bit up in arms when he visited there earlier in the Expo season.

As the night drew to a close it became apparent that even after two evenings of solid walking and visiting the pavilions we had still not made it too the centre of the park where the home-side pavilion was located. 

On Final Assessment...

So did we enjoy it?  Well yes, and no.  As a place to incite our travel bug some pavilions well and truly hit the spot for us (so much so that we are heading to one of the countries next year for our big holiday), while some achieved absolute fail status (check out the final ratings below).  We would like to get back again to check out some of the European ones, and the SE Asia ones.

The real fail though had to be the attitude of the locals themselves.  It was mid-way through our first night at the Expo that I was reminded of the ‘Expo Passports’, which visitors can buy and have stamped at all the pavilions.  Chinese people, being the wannabe Capitalists they are, have created an online market in these passports.  While they can be purchased empty for only 30rmb from any Expo souvenir stand, a passport with all the pavilion’s stamps in there can go for tens of thousands of dollars on TaoBao (China’s own e-Bay).  This has caused many Chinese visitors to focus more on the money they can get from the stamped passport, rather than what the Expo is all about – learning about places beyond your own borders.  As a result Amy and I observed a lot of locals running quickly through the pavilions to get to the stamping stand at the exit, and most of the slower wandering visitors merely stopping for one or two cliché’ ‘Peace Sign’ shots and not reading any of the information.  It also exacerbated the incidence of pushing in of the locals, and a few times we saw people blatantly jump the queues.  Luckily for them they didn’t try it on us, because with the combination of heat and general lack of tolerance for shitheads at that time it could have been a war of words (although to be honest, I would not have been that well armed – beyond ‘Bu Hao’ I’ve got nothin’)

All up though it was a good weekend in Shanghai, and aside from the 2^nd storm on the Sunday which delayed our flight back home by a few hours it was good to check out the SE part of China which I had not yet been too (except for HK, if you want to include that).  Out of all the pavilion we visited the following ones really did it for us:

• Spain - great film that brought back memories of our 2003 trip.
• Peru - even though I have not been there, footage of Machu Picchu never fails to titillate.
• Mexico - will book my holiday as soon as the drug cartels have killed each other off.  Get on with it, would you?
• Slovenia - here we come.
• Luxembourg - what's there not to like about the home of the Schleck brothers?
• Chile - if only for the food and wine at the end, and the live music.
• Australia - because it would be un-Australian not too.
• Italy - but only Amy visited this one.  

The pick of the taste-testing dishes for the night, from the Chile pavilion.  Even better that we got there at happy hour - not a bad serve for 48rmb.

The following ones are worth a visit of the lines aren’t that long, but I wouldn't put them on your 'Must-See’ list:

• Venezuela
• Columbia
• Algeria
• Tunisia
• The Caribbean

The man with the funny hat and the Vegas shirt, from the Columbia pavilion.

And then there were the countries that should really ask to be conquered by their neighbors, as they have done their national identity a great disservice in their attempt to really get the message across about anything worthwhile about their county.  That’s right, I'm talking to YOU Netherlands, Canada and Cuba.  Some free advice for the Netherlands folk out there: With a pavilion made up of arty little rooms of nothing, if anyone asks about your country's Expo efforts then you might want to steer the conversation towards your World Cup final result - even though you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, it would still be a less uncomfortable and painful conversation topic.  Add a bit of Red Light District and special 'cafes' flavour to the mix next time - that'll have the crowds talking and remembering (did I mention the Bund Tunnel experience?).  The weirdest part was being asked to fill in a visitor satisfaction survey on my experience, only 50 meters into my visit.  I was too kind in hindsight.

One of the exhibits on show at the Netherlands Pavilion.  Say WHAT?

So with the Expo out of the way, what's next for the Guihots?  Right now we are currently in the Land of the Rising Sun enjoying some clean air and blue sky up in Hokkaido before heading to Tokyo for 4 days, and aim to write about these adventures in the coming fortnight.  It's certainly worlds apart from the Middle Kingdom, in so many ways.