EXPO Blog

As you may know, the International EXPO has been in Shanghai for the past six months.  We were able to get tickets and attend today with Gail and David and their good friend Yi Jin as our guide and translator.  This was quite lucky since the EXPO is closing in a few days.  There are about 190 Country, State and Business Pavilions -- you can "google" it to read all the details and stats.  Like everything else in China, it was too vast to be able to take a photo to show what it looks like so you can also look that up online.

We concentrated on countries today and were able to see the exhibits for Spain, the African nations, Israel, France, Sri Lanka, and Italy (OBVIOUSLY where we ate and drank lunch).  The most popular pavilions such as China and Japan had long lines so we were not able to see them. It's hard to explain how remarkable this EXPO is for the Chinese.  Their lives have been so isolated that very, very few have ever been outside of China.  It's a big deal for them to travel to Shanghai to get to the EXPO - and so it is incredulous how many photos they took of every single exhibit and display.  They are devouring the cultures and information of other countries.

At the end of the day when we were dragging our feet and our tushies - exhausted after 6 hours of touring.  The USA Pavilion had a long line, but with our American passports, we were able to cut the line and enter through a VIP gate.  Almost as an afterthought (since we were pooped) we entered the USA Pavilion.  As we were waiting for the start of the program, a mother and her two daughters (one of whom was fluent in English) started smiling at us and touching us.  The daughter told us that her mother said we were very beautiful.  The mother kept talking to us in Chinese, smiling and mugging for photographs with us.

It took a while to fully understand why they were so enthralled with us, but the essence was this:  This family was so excited to be entering the American Pavilion and they could not believe their good luck of walking into the American Pavilion with four Americans!!  The daughter made a big speech about how they have the greatest of respect for America and the American citizens.  It was quite a moving scene and I hope the photos capture it a bit.

The USA Pavilion was extraordinary and the highlight of the day for us.  They showed three fantastic movies.  We were in there with a few thousand Chinese and we were the only American guests.  We laughed at the jokes in the movies, clapped and cheered.  I'm not sure whether the Chinese guests understood all the innuendos of the films -- but it was clear that being in that Pavilion was a highlight for all of them as well.

It felt great!  What a wonderful day at EXPO and thanks to Gail, David and Yi Jin for hooking us up with tickets and shepherding us through the EXPO.