My friends, who live in Shanghai, had told me how packed Expo was and they had no intention to go in. When 26th June saw my family taking Shanghai Metro, the name for the subway, we were not less excited. More and more joined in each stop. I was impressed by the glass-sliding entrance doors on platforms, they opened and closed when doors of train carts opened and closed. It's such a clever idea to protect people from any potential hazards.
All of us were a bit lost once we got in Expo after security check, like what we had in airport. So many pavilions, where should we go?
Soon we found there were two many people in front of some European Pavilions, such as Germany and France, each claimed there would be 3-5 hours queue. Fortunately we noticed the queue in front of Czech was not long, after half an hour, a handsome man signed we could go in and we started to experience the culture and music of beautiful Czech.
It was a lucky start, we decided to have a tour in some East Europe and African countries. Tunisia presented clothing, crafty goods, artistic works, history, food, and many others, such a lovely place.
The culmination came in when we could go to France and China finally in the late afternoon and the evening, taking 1 and a half hour queue respectively. It was much shorter than we heard in the morning. The theme for France was Sensual City,
a place where the 6 senses are exalted – taste, smell, touch, hearing, sight and balance / movement. Showered in French music, scenic pictures with lights specially designed, the experience was unforgettable. I made so many "wow" in front of the original paintings, one was Cezanne's and one was from Vincent van Gogh, in my life for the first time I saw famous original paintings! They must be different from any printed copy or TV programmes.
China was the last stop simply because our tickets were for the evening visit so visitors could be distributed evenly through the day. China was probably the only pavilion who assigned time for tickets, and it was also the largest pavilion in Expo 2010. By 8 pm we eventually were in, everyone was too tired to finish it. We had to skip one area and just toured 2 of them. The most spectacular part was the presentation of a Chinese painting in a wall. I have to explain this in my next post.
