The Expo Taxi's 10 Commandments

As the temperature of the Expo-fever has been raising in the last year, Shanghai needed a little icing on top of the already amply creamed cake. Riding taxis in Shanghai is not always a pleasurable affair, and I suppose the city had some self-realization on this point and decided that the city's traffic needed a little "pick-me-up". Apparently they chose the best drivers in the city and gave them a brand new car to drive as a reward. There is definitely a difference in the quality of the expo-drivers (sometimes... unless they decided that you are in a hurry, without your prior knowledge of this fact) and the "regular" drivers. On my last taxi trip I decided that they must have been given 10 holy commandments that they had to follow.

1. Thou shalt try to speak English, even if all you can meekly stutter is incomprehensible "chinglish".
2. Thou shalt listen closely to your passengers when they scream with indisputable urgency that they are scared for their life to the extent that at least two of the passengers are crying.
3. Thou shalt smile. Or draw your lips upwards towards your eyes so that it at least possibly resembles a smile.
4. Thou shalt not make your passengers deaf by playing Peking Opera so loudly that the singing only dogs can hear will burst ear drums.
5. Thou shalt use AC, because lets face it, white people cannot handle the hardcore Shanghai heat and humidity. They are not goldfish.
6. Thou shalt speak as much as possible with your passengers, even if they give no sign of understanding what you are saying.
7. Thou shalt not yell at a passenger who does not know the exact intersecting road they may want to go to. Not everyone knows Shanghais over one million streets as intimately as the Shanghai taxi driver.
8. Thou shalt keep your taxi clean. No paper, trash, smelly pillows, food residue, dirt or faeces.
9. Thou shalt take a shower at least once a week to reduce the potential smell of human bodily odors that make the passengers sick, or dog-like when they ride with their head out the window to survive the horrors of smells that should never have to be smelled.
10. Thou shalt not drive before all people and all limbs are inside the car. All passengers must be unharmed when leaving the vehicle.

Enjoy your Expo-taxi ride, they even have seat belts in the back seat!!
Trine:)

Climbing the Everest of the Expo: China Pavilion!

Last Monday, seeing as it was her last day ever at Expo, Kjersti and I (Tori) decided to climb new heights: We would attempt to enter China´s country pavilion, the "Everest of the Expo". I have nicknamed it this firstly because of it´s enormous size and grandeur, and secondly because ever since the expo opened it has been almost impossible to enter this pavilion due to the tremendous queues-- in the beginning spectators were lining up outside of the expo site at early dawn, and thereby running inside after the gates open at 9.30, to queue again outside the China pavilion. To solve this problem, the Expo centre issued a ticket system: A fixed amount of tickets to the pavilion are given out at every entrance gate of Expo in the mornings untill they are out, and visitors must show these tickets to enter. As you can probably imagine, this still means that many many early-birds line up outside around 4-5 am... But at least it prevents people from standing in queue all day, as the ticket gives you a fixed time slot.

The China Pavilion from a nearby skywalk, contemplating on how to get in..

When finally reaching the entrance, we found that excellent persuasive skills (and blonde hair?) can in fact make you exempt from the ticket rule. A surprisingly small amount of sweet-talk with a guard, and we were through the gates and ready to visit the Crown of the East.

First some facts: China Pavilion's design was chosen from 344 entries submitted from all over the world. The final design is made by a joint team from South China University of Technology and Tsinghua University.The budget of the pavilion is about 1.5 billion yuan (US$203 million), The design of China Pavilion expresses that Chinese ideals of "Oriental Crown, Splendid China, Ample Barn, Rich People", the desire for plenty and wealth, hallmarks of the Chinese culture. The long history of China from ancient to modern times, and its evolution from a rural economy to an urban society are also showcased through multimedia exhibits.(read more at http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_gj_tpl_85.htm)

My first impression from the outside was that the pavilion is HUGE.. and so beautiful. I love the red structure in its´ traditional Chinese dougong style , yet with a simplistic modern touch. We rode an escalator up to the first pavilion patio to a new queue that we again managed to skip, and then took an elevator up to the exhibition inside the crown.

A group of professors from Guangzhou resting in the queue

View from escalator on our way up

The first part featured a 10-minute imax movie showing China´s development after the reform, through shots of various Chinese people in their (more or less) everyday lives. This film was actually one of my favourite parts of the exhibition, although it paints a rather perfectioned picture, that I am quite sure not every 1,4 billion Chinese can relate to. (But then every country wants to display itself at its´best and might at times stretch some truths.. at Norway Pavilion we have video-shots of people fishing in Akerselva and sunbathing from the Oslo Opera..)

Next we saw a copy of a very famous Ming Dynasty painting that is several meters long, but with a new twist: The people in the painting were moving around! The painting was truly spectacular. It really reminded me of Harry Potter´s marauders map:)

Part of the modern Ming painting

Moving on we walked through an avatar-like forest, experienced various advanced movie effects and witnessed a small flute soloist concert. Finally we walked through an exhibition of Chinese childrens´art work, which really blew my mind! (See pictures below). By this time we had been inside for over half an hour, and had apparently just finished the first part!

Kjersti in front of the "lightsticks-forest"

Our favourite work of "little kid art"... age 8!

The following section featured a short amusementpark-like ride(but without the bumps and loops.. like Disneyland´s "It´s a small world.."), which took us through several rooms showing art displays of the building blocks of cities(bridges, beams etc). It was amusing to sit down and do something different, but honestly this ride was not super-interesting or informative.

wuuuhuu, yes azz!

The third section featured a more regular exhibition, the hightlight for me being a waterfall, which drops water in the shape of HaiBao (the expo maskot). Finally we were led out to the patio beneath the main struture, were we got to see a fantastic view of the entire expo site. This was also one of the highlights in my opinion. Here there was also a spot where one could line up for stamps, for those that are interested (personally I have abandoned my Expo passport because of the stamp craze). Finally it was time to take the escalator back down again.

But of course I made sure to attain the most important souvenir: A picture with one of the employees in his uniform!!

Bumped into co-worker Lars, here he is on the patio with a night view of the Expo

Riding the escalator down to earth again

Overall I give the pavilion top rating, and recommend everyone who has the chance, to try to visit it!

Tori

One guide down:(

It is with tremendous regret I have to write a post saying bye to one of our most patient, kind and blond guides - Kjersti. She is returning to Norway after a short stint at the Expo to teach children in Norway math and Norwegian and important stuff like that. Before doing this she will be enjoying a Norwegian summer and chilling out with her friends, family and boyfriend. She really deserves this break as she has been one of the most patient guides at the Norwegian pavilion. Although she doesn't speak much Chinese, she communicates with the visitors by allowing over half the Chinese population to take pictures with her, and she actually smiles in all pictures. It should be noted that many of the other guides have now forgotten how to smile in pictures and are making something of a grimace instead. We will really miss Kjersti at the pavilion, but we wish her all the best in the future!

The Zealand that is New

For the first time in over a month both Tori and I were done working for the day before we were so tired that we only just managed to lag our sad little bodies back to our beds while cursing heavily towards anything expo-related. This new-found energy also comes from the lack of stamps at our pavilion and a better queuing system. To celebrate this we decided to hit up a few pavilions. We began at Portugal which will not be covered lengthily as it was a bit of a disappointment, besides the delicious egg/vanilla/butter dough snacks they served. Following this we went to Australia which will be covered at length, but not in this post. Then we visited Thailand where we had to queue for about five minutes which gives them a big minus (that's right, I don't queue!). The last one visited by me was New Zealand which I have been curious to take a closer look at because of its alluring roof-top garden. A proper green lung. With mosquitos.

pitstop at Portugal pavillion, this was the highlight!

Lets start up with a few facts and figures before I brainwash you with my opinions about this particular pavilion. New Zealands theme at the expo is "Cities of Nature: Living between Land and Sky". Does this mean that the kiwi population is in constantly air borne? No. This is not a literal statement contrary to what some of you may think. It illustrates the close connection between people and nature. Very nice. The pavilion is situated in zone B close to the Australian, Singaporean and the Indonesian monster pavilion. It stretches out over a 2000 square meter piece of land and is architecturally quite beautiful. In the words of the Kiwi voices they proudly proclaim on their website that, "The dream team of New Zealand’s award-winning visitor experience designers comprises Story Inc, creator of The Lord of the Rings international touring exhibition, Plan 9, music composer for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Kim Jarrett, greens master for King Kong.". I mean, all of this in one sentence can only make for a great pavilion! With a budget of 20mill USD they have certainly managed to get a lot out of their cash.

I would like to tell you now what I learnt about NZ while visiting their oasis. They have sheep, they go to school, they have cities, they have plants and they have wind energy. Also I believe it is quite a "cute" country. By walking through their pavilion I got the feeling that city and nature intertwine quite closely, and that nature is a high priority for New Zealanders. There was however a lack of information as there seems to be in all pavilions at expo, and I was unable to learn as much as I would have liked. This may also be because of the lack of guides present throughout the pavilion. I saw one, but the poor guy was stamping his ass off... Stupid stamps.... Who decided this stamp thing was a good idea?? REALLY?? Hmm.. ok enough of the digression. One very strong plus for the Kiwi pavilion was their use of flora on the roof. I felt like I was back in nature doing a very crowded hike especially popular with the Chinese. They had a little luxurious-looking pool in the midst of it all, and me and the girls are fervently trying to figure out how we can smuggle ourselves, bathing suits and a big bottle of champagne into the pavilion after hours.

This pavilion is definitely worth a visit. I would recommend kidnapping one of the guides so that you can get a proper tour of the pavilion. This way I am sure all the clever details that the "dream team" have come up with will be a little clearer, and you will leave with a much stronger impression of what they are trying to tell the rest of the world.
Huan ying nin lai xin xilan guan!! check out the pictures below!
Trine:)

walking in the garden (roof of pavillion). cheese!

Outside of New Zealand

and finally: illustration of a stemp desk situation (Portugal)

Hello Kitty- eat your heart out!

and move over for this guy! For those of you who have set foot anywhere near Shanghai or even China the last few years, you must have been blind not to notice this little blue fellow. He is the Expo mascot, making Hello Kitty and other local favourite Xiyangyang shiver in their boots, as his image is everywhere to be seen(and not the least, bought!).

Though mistakenly similar to a figure you might see in a toothpaste ad, this guy has an intricate story. He was produced by Taiwanese designer Wu Yong jian, and was selected out of 26,655 entries as part of an international competition. His name is HaiBao, translated to Jewel of the Sea, thus his blue colour. He is shaped like the Chinese character 人（ pronounced; rén) meaning person or people. Haibao is a happy little fellow, ready to embrace friends from all over the world, with his outstretched arms.

You can read more about the little guy at http://en.expo2010.cn/documents/hqjxw.htm. "The image of mascot should well express the theme of Shanghai Expo "Better City, Better Life" by using innovative ideas, impressive appearance and motions to state its concept and characters." says the official Expo website. Whether or not he succeeds in this, he has become extremely popular. Statues of him in different costumes and postures can be seen all over Shanghai. The so-called authorized souvenir shops at Expo are packed with different versions of him; The obvious teddybear-form can be obtained in at least a dozen different sizes, in addition to key chains, mobile devices, posters, T-shirts, sweaters, caps++ A Haibao cuddlyblanket has also recently come out, and has become a popular garnment among the tourists during the cool Shanghai nights.

Perhaps not suprisingly; the second you set one foot out of the expo gates, you´ll have plenty of people approaching you to sell you not-so-authorized versions of HaiBao. These are probably a lot cheaper, and frankly look exactly the same.. The little guys´ design is not exactly super-hard to copy!

I have personally grown to love the wee fellow, and I suspect some of my colleagues have as well. ZhaoBing recently pulled out a cute little teddybear HaiBao in the ladies lockerroom, that had been given to her by her boyfriend and Expo colleague Lars. She also reported that AiQi has the cuddly-blanket version, of which I am very jealous(am planning to buy it as soon as we get our next salary). In addition to being cute and smiley, HaiBao is a great conversation starter when talking to most visitors at our pavillion. "I see you´re wearing Haibao on your shirt, how nice!" "Is that your new HaiBao little kid? what a cool toy!" etc etc.

If any of you fellow hosts and hostNesses have any good HaiBao pictures, please send them to trineogtori@hotmail.no. I really wanted to post some pictures of him in real life, but sadly saw that I had none on my camera- update- took a few today! see below..

Soon to come on exposingshanghai.blogspot.com: Actual encounters from the different countries´ pavillions! (Trine, remember our initial plan to visit like 10 pavillions a week and write about them?! hehe)

Tori

Drawing of HaiBao in traditional Chinese gear, at the China Pavilion. Drawn by an eight-year-old or something..

Tori with a blow-up HaiBao, outside an authorized souvenir shop