Shanghai: EXPO, Tag 3, 29.6.2010

Today we started early in the day to be ready for the Shanghai EXPO 2010. At 8.15 a.m. we walked to the Metro station and took the metro No. 7 to the exposition site. Daniel told us that every day almost half a million people, mostly Chinese, are visiting the exposition. The site is huge and almost every country in the world is trying to present itself in the best possible manner.

Foto: Swiss pavilion

Unfortunately, one of us (Mr. Rau) forgot his entrance ticket at home. He went back to the hostel and therefore could not join us for the guided tour in the Swiss pavilion. After some first impressions we met with Kevin Balzan who was waiting for us in the Swiss pavilion. In fluent Swiss St. Gall German he explained us the idea of the Swiss pavilion. 10 000 solar cells outside the building should show the Chinese how much energy could be taken from the sun. He also noted that Switzerland on a map looks like a pig in Chinese eyes. Mr. Balzan who works in the Swiss pavilion for several months explained that the main sponsors of the project were ABB, Swiss, Holcim, Swatch, Nestle, Ringier, Nuessli and Schindler. 15 Swiss citizens are working constantly in the pavilion to promote Switzerland to the Chinese public. The first room he showed us is called Face to face room where people can meet with famous or ordinary Swiss people. Micheline Calmy-Rey for example explained how the concept of Swiss neutrality works. Another elderly lady told people about the way Swiss people earn their money after their retirement. Another room in the Swiss pavilion is the IMAX room. People can see and take pictures of Switzerland, especially the mountain area. Unfortunately the main attraction of the Swiss pavilion, the chair lift, was not working because of a technical defect. Besides a Swiss restaurant there are not many more interesting things to see in the Swiss pavilion. The initiators of the project tried to describe Switzerland in another way than traditional ideas (chocolate, mountains, watches or cheese) but in our opinion the project did not totally fulfill this purpose.

After lunch we met at 2 p.m. in front of the Finnish Pavilion. Fortunately we could enter the pavilion by the VIP entrance and our guide was a typical Finnish sauna lady. She told us a lot about the pavilion, for example that after done its purpose for the exposition it will be sold and can be completely removed. The Finnish pavilion made us eager to know more about Finland and made us conscious about Finnish brands in the world economy. At 3 p.m. we visited the Belgian pavilion, again by the VIP easy access. It was not that impressive as the Finnish pavilion but we left it with the scent of chocolate in our nooses.

Foto: Different pavilions at the EXPO

Normally people from a country can enter their countries pavilion by the VIP entrance and so avoid waiting several hours in the waiting line. Afterwards our visit of the Belgian pavilion the group slit up and we went on discovery tour on our own. Some of us used different techniques to enter a countries pavilion without queuing. For example to present themselves as Portuguese with blond hair (Stefan), as Chinese teacher with a group of students (Christina), as German guys with a Spanish friend (Michael, Bene, Lukas, Spanish friend), corrupting French entrance security with French biscuits (Cyprien) or to accompany a Spaniard (Bene, Michael, Lukuas, Spanish guy). The chinese pavilion was huge with all its internal regional pavilions and as attractive as the ambitions of China as the new global superpower.

Foto: Uighurian dinner

At 7 p.m. the group met again for diner. Daniel guided us to a Chinese Uighurian restaurant. The food was as spicy as the Uighurian dancer. Stefan was tested in his Uighurian dancing skill. He did well and was nearly contracted as professional dancer. Even though the atmosphere was great and the food was rich in spices. It has been a very intensive and exciting day. It will give us the right impulses for our second and last visit to the expo tomorrow.

Cyprien Hauser and Michael Regli

(Fotos: Heike Mayer)