Expo 2010

We found the 1.3 billion people - they were all at the Expo. We went Friday, and spent all day there. Since NAEA didn't have a bus for us we took the subway, which was an adventure in itself. Chinese people (watch out for the upcoming generalization) are notoriously bad map readers, we have discovered. In Hohhot they couldn't tell us where we were when we pulled out the map, and Friday when Dr. Who and Bob were studying the subway map at the Metro station they had no idea what it meant. The sign told us where we were, and they knew where we wanted to go, but otherwise they were clueless. We had to tell them which trains to take, and how many stops for each; but we made it.

OMG, the place was unbelievably crowded, and the holiday was over. The Saudi Arabia exhibit, which was supposed to be the most spectacular, had a 5 hour wait, so of course we didn't see it. I must have walked 10 miles around the place in the blazing haze/sun. It was Texas week at the USA pavilion, and the Marshall Ford Swing Band played a set. We talked with their manager, and when he found out we were from A&M they played the Fight Song, which they had learned for Gov. Goodhair, but never got the chance to play for him. We didn't go through the US exhibit, as the ladies in our group said it was very disappointing - just 3 little videos.

Nepal, Algeria, Brazil, India.....not much time waiting in those lines. There were some very cool exhibits - Chile was spectacular - they had a whole upside down room; you walked into a blank space, looked up, and there it was. They also had a nice little outside bar. Mexico was sort of disappointing except for some art they had hanging from the wall. Italy, where we waited in line for an hour, was also amazing - a tailor shop with real people working inside a glass box, a symphony hanging from the wall, and lots of fashion-art stuff. Spain was weird - what the heck does the giant robot baby represent?


But what got me were the people. Almost everyone there was Chinese, and the tickets weren't cheap. They were coming on vacation from all over China - the rising middle class. All 1.3 billion of them, shoving and pushing with never an 'excuse me' to be heard. If I slowed down in line to take a picture they would shove right past me into the middle of our group. I guess with that many people, if you wait you'll never get anything.

The whole place closes down at 9 pm - what the ****? In the US it would be open 'til midnight, at least. But this ain't the US, so we took a taxi home, because the group I was with wanted to see the lights of Shanghai at night.


The first few pictures are from the top high school in Nanjing, which we visited Thursday afternoon. 63 kids in the geography class we saw. But then, teachers have what amounts to a college-type schedule, with only 2-3 classes per day, and office hours the rest of the time - with real offices!