The Closing of Expo

I have never been in Shanghai sans Expo. I don't know what it's like.

To be honest, I'm not totally sure if Expo is a big deal outside of China. I mean, I knew about it way before I came here, from a combination of being Chinese and researching Shanghai before applying to the program. But I honestly have no clue what foreigners or mei guo ren hear about Expo, or if they even hear about it.

Basically, Expo is a 46 billion dollar (BILLION! DOLLAR! NOT EVEN YUAN, DOLLAR!) project that unites most countries in the world at a World's Fair. It's like the ones in Paris, New York, and Chicago in years past. I thought World's Fairs and Expos were either a thing of the past or very, very rare, but there's to be another one in Korea in two years. Who knew?

For Expo, hundreds of pavilions were built along the Huangpu river, with the most stunning architecture I've ever seen in my life. They are so impressive! The crown jewel is the China pavilion, a huge red structure that is already a national icon. You see pictures like the one above on the subway, on ads, in alleyways, everywhere. The first time I saw the China pavilion was in the San Jose Mercury News, reading about Expo and wondering what it'd be like. I saw the picture and thought, it can't possibly look like that. And yet it does. It is massive and brilliant. The architecture is, I think, flawless, being both unmistakeably Chinese and unmistakeably modern. No wonder it gets plastered on every postcard and trinket in this city.

Like all things in China, the Expo has a mascot. His name is HaiBao, and he is my good friend. He's the blue guy in the space suit in the first picture above. He's just this little blue ripoff of Gumby. Supposedly he looks like both the hanzi for ren (person) and hai (the second half of Shanghai- it means "sea"). He, too is plastered everywhere, along with the slogan "Better City. Better Life." which is the theme of this year's Expo.

And China has gone to great measures to make this slogan true. They have majorly cleaned up many slums in the city, massively constructed the subway, adding about ten lines in the past two years, and helped reduce pollution in the city's still-dirty air. I've never known the Shanghai that was gritty, that didn't have this glossy sheen of the Expo surrounding it. I think it would be interesting, but I do appreciate the abundance of Western toilets and conveniences that have popped up along with the fair.

I've been to Expo twice and was really impressed both times. The first time, I spent an afternoon wandering marvelling at the architecture and going into a few pavilions (China and Spain were the highlights-- though what was up with that enormous animatron baby in the Spain pavilion?!). The second time I came with a class and spent time in the Puxi side of the Expo in the Best Urban Practices pavilions (catchy name, huh?). To read about my adventures in the Expo more thoroughly you can check out my Chinatravel blog post here: http://blog.chinatravel.net/festivals-special-events/future-puxi-side-of-expo-2010.html

The Expo closes in a couple days, and I have so many questions about what Shanghai will be like without it. Will there still be HaiBaos sold on every corner? What will happen to all the pavilions? What about all the billboards, ads, signs, and paraphanalia sprinkled throughout the city?

Only time will tell.