Earlier this week I had a chance to visit the Shanghai Expo. The Expo opened on May 1st and will be closing this Sunday October 31. On Tuesday, my wife and I arrived at the Expo grounds at 800am. The Expo opens at 9am and the pavilions open at 930am. One would think by arriving this early we would be one of the first ones there. By the time we arrived at one of the many entrance gates at the park, there were about 1000-1500 people in front of us, with 99.5% of the crowd being Chinese.
When the gates opened at 930am there was a mad dash to be first in line at the Expo’s most popular pavilions. People were not briskly walking but they were running. Running fast! Babies in strollers were being raced by their mothers. Seniors in their wheelchairs were yelling at their attendants to go faster.
Within 20 minutes, the most popular pavilions had already had long line ups. The China, Japan and Saudi Arabia pavilions had 4 hour lineups controlled by the China Military Police. UK, USA and Germany had lines of 3 hours. Needless to say we did not go into any of the above. We did manage to see about 8 pavilions including the Cirque du Soleil designed Canada Pavilion. (Show your Canadian passport and bypass the 2 hour line). By late afternoon, our feet were sore and heads were ringing so we decided to call it a day and treat ourselves to a 90 minute massage for less $30. Now that’s more my pace of life.
Otis Ashby
Sales & Operations
