Yesterday we went to the Expo, which is the focus of public attention here in Shanghai these days. The weather was overcast, that being both unfortunate (because the riverfront views that the various pavilions were designed to present turned out to be mostly grey), and good (because it kept the temperature down at a pleasant level).

I'd love to say that after Hanover and Aichi, this makes three in a row, but as the Expo History Exhibition taught us, there was also Zaragoza 2008 (and there will be Yeosu 2012 before Milan 2015).

As could be expected, the major pavilions had prohibitively long lines in front of them. I did not see any of the helpful signs with the three digit minutes you'd have to wait like they had in Aichi, but it seemed like they would not have shown significantly different numbers. That we were able to get into a number of other pavilions was mostly thanks to Kai and the special express queues for wheelchairs and baby cars. The other great advantage of bringing him along was the interest he generated with the Chinese visitors, who at one point even lined up to take pictures with him.

Quick rundown of the pavilions we saw: Pacific Pavilion with all these tiny island states (populations less than 50.000, highest mountain five metres above sea level), African Pavilion (with a drum performance, Kai loves drum performances), the Denmark Pavilion (with Copenhagen harbour's original Little Mermaid on loan inside), the Monaco Pavilion (terrible opening movie, should have taken inspiration from the San Marino Pavilion), the Turkish Pavilion (with at least three attached kebab restaurants), the Czech Pavilion (with everyone's favourite children's animations), the North Korean Pavilion (a Paradise for the People, or so they claim) right next to the Iranian Pavilion, the Belgian Pavilion (which was closed for the day, with someone important given interviews there, but you could still buy waffles, chocolate, and pommes frittes), and a couple others who I have no record of because their stamp for the Expo passport was broken or otherwise missing.

We obviously did not see even close to everything, but since the Expo is still going on through October and really just around the corner from our house, we will probably go a few more times. I am also hoping for a spectacular closing ceremony, as we have missed the opening fireworks (where they made a point being bigger than the one the Beijing Olympic Games had) by just a few weeks.