Shanghai Expo Through My Eyes

By staff reporters YAN WEIJUAN, ZHANG HONG & LI WUZHOU

WHAT does it mean to visit the Shanghai Expo? Every person will give you a different answer.

"We can see lots of different things here. Every country has its own way of thinking and we can learn from each other. I love the Expo and I've learned lots from it," says Marie, a German who has been working in a Shanghai bank for five years.

Meaningful Theme

“I think the theme ‘Better City, Better Life’ is great. It reminds us to struggle for better living conditions and a better environment,” she continues. “It’s on a massive scale and is massively diverse. Sure, it’s crowded, but there’s so much to see. It’s really impressive and well worth coming to.”

Martine, from France, agrees about the theme. “The environment is a big concern of mine. It’s important to leave the legacy of a beautiful environment to our offspring,” she says. This is her first visit to China, and she came to the Expo with her daughter Florielle who has worked in Shanghai for six months.

Bruce Traversy, from Canada, is here with his wife and two daughters. He really cares about the theme, and is most interested in the Urban Best Practices Area, since the pavilions there showcase the

cities of the future.

Huang Xiaoshi, editor-in-chief of Taiwan-based magazine CONDE, holds that the theme is one “China should certainly address.”

“The West completed urbanization long ago, but China’s massive rural population means there’s plenty of scope for developing cities. The process is in the past tense for Western society, but in the present tense for us.” Huang thinks the Expo allows countries to exchange experience, “It’s an opportunity to understand the problems urbanization brought to the West, to prevent them becoming more acute here.”

The different national showcases concentrate largely on mankind’s life in the future. “The pavilions share the same theme, namely environmental protection and reducing energy consumption as much as possible. For example, all the materials are recyclable, and many pavilions use woven materials rather than stone and cement, which is probably going to be a trend in future.”

Favorite Pavilions

Jan Jiefke is a professional photographer from Germany who has worked in Shanghai for 11 years. In 2008, he started taking shots of the German and Swiss pavilions during construction. “Now I’m here to see them in operation. As regards the national pavilions, I like China’s very much, and the British pavilion as well. Both are simple, not overly technical. I like the German pavilion too, but there’s too much technology for my taste. I also like the Urbanian, City Being and Urban Planet theme pavilions, which lay out solutions to the problems we are facing – like water, atmosphere, environment – and what we can do to solve them. The other pavilions are short on solutions: they’re more for fun rather than for study.”

The China Pavilion was the most impressive for Martine and her daughter Florielle. “It’s so huge, and the red is attractive,” they say. “And the Britain Pavilion too. It’s our first World Expo, so every structure beckons. It’s the perfect stage for us to see the special features of so many countries.”

Annie, from the United States, particularly likes the Japan Pavilion and its interior decoration. “Japan has done a lot of work on water processing and environmental protection. Unfortunately, all the activities are in Chinese, and I can’t make out what is being said.”

Italian Vania Piomboni of the Larich Travel Agency and no stranger to the Expo Park had already visited 10 pavilions the day we spoke to her. “The most impressive are the cable car of the Switzerland Pavilion and our Italy Pavilion. As well as being beautiful, it really manifests Italian culture well.”

Deng Jianwei, from Guangdong Province, is engaged in architectural design. He has spent all his time on the 46 national pavilions, “because the built forms are in accord with the characteristics of their respective countries.” The Saudi Arabia Pavilion holds special interest for him. It is like a ship, but the prow of the “ship” looks like a bowl. Inside, too, the 4-D screen is like a bowl. “The design is perfectly suited to its internal function.”

He sees the Indonesia Pavilion in the same light, stressing local character. “In a tropical country like Indonesia, bamboo grows everywhere. The pavilion shows bamboo being used in many ways – crosswise for floors, lengthwise for ceilings, lamps and flowerpots. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-live-with, low-carbon material. And it doesn’t demand great craftsmanship to use.”

Xie Lun, an artist from Taiwan settled in Shanghai, has visited 87 pavilions and been to the Expo Park countless times. He likes the Chile Pavilion best, and has learned that if you dug down from Shanghai straight through the center of the earth, you would emerge in the Chilean capital. “We are actually very close to other countries.” He endorses the opinion of Confucius, “Within the four seas, all men are brothers.”

“Every country has tried to use elements of Chinese culture to get closer to the Chinese people. They haven’t just brought in their own cultures,” notes Xie on the basis of his detailed observation.

An Eye-opener for Hosts and Guests

“Part of the legacy of this event is the transformation of the old Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, making it part of a thoroughly modern city.” Xie has high praise for efforts by the city and the state in reviving ancient buildings, whether by commercial or public endeavor, noting that the removal of heavy industry and its conversion to a residential area was too giant a project not to require state involvement.

Like many Taiwanese, Xie Lun thinks the Expo’s biggest function is educating Chinese citizens. “Hosting the World Expo and the Olympics are great opportunities for a country. People of the host nation will become more openminded, and refresh their opinions about the outside world. The world is so large yet so integrated one can no longer be complacent or self-absorbed.”

For Bonga Wihhy, working in Shanghai for about 10 months, this is his second visit to the Expo, but this time he is accompanying his family who have just arrived from France.

“My memories will be of long queues, huge pavilions, good organization and friendly people. My previous image of China was totally wrong. China is developing very well. It’s a good place to live, especially in terms of personal safety. When I first came to China, I expected to see a country in poverty with poor transportation, but I was stunned when I got to Shanghai. Any friends coming from France will be amazed at the disparity between what they have heard and what they actually see. Apart from the difficulty of learning Chinese, my life in Shanghai is good, simple and convenient. People are warm and friendly. In Paris, I wouldn’t dare let my kids out of my sight to play. Even I won’t venture out alone at night. But in Shanghai, the streets are safe even late at night. I like the life here.”

What most impresses Jan Jiefke are the streams of people. “In Europe queues as long as this – a wait of six hours sometimes – are unimaginable! So the patience of visitors will stay with me.”

Bruce Traversy and his family plan to visit other places in Shanghai too. “We’re enjoying this trip a whole lot. There’s so many skyscrapers here, and we went to the top of the Oriental Pearl.” So far, what has impressed him most is the people’s pride in hosting the Expo and that people have come from across China for this big event. In his opinion, Shanghai “thinks in large numbers,” and has lots of highrise buildings and good places to shop. “We went to a gallery called M50 near the railway station. There are tons of individual galleries, with lots of exquisite art to have fun in. Shanghai is well worth coming to.”

Mark, from California but working in Hong Kong, has dropped in during a business trip to Shanghai. “The construction is fantastic. I feel I’ve come to a city within a city. And the infrastructure is complete and advanced. The national pavilions are great too!” He believes that in future metropolises will become symbols of the world, like burgeoning Shanghai, or traditional cosmopolitan cities such as New York, London and Mexico City. “My grandmother used to live in Shanghai in the 1940s and she told me lots about the place. But the city I’m seeing now is totally different. The number of skyscrapers here is awesome.”