Expo Expo Expo

A little secret I have about the Expo is that believe it or not I was their first western volunteer when I was living in Shanghai last year. As such, I happen to have a good amount of information stored in my note book about the Expo that I thought I would share with you.

First of all, there are over 200 official participants and over 70 million visitors are expected to turn out for this enormous event. There are 5 different zones each averaging about 60 hectares. On the Northwest side of the Shanghai World Expo in Pudong, or "Section A," you can find the Expo Village, this is where most of the people working and living in Shanghai purely for the expo live. Also found tower over the Layout in Section A is the famed Chinese Pavilion shaped in the likeness of an "ancient official oriental crown". Next to the you can find Macau pavilion in the shape of a bunny (its pretty interesting) as well as the performance theater which will feature different expo related performances through the duration of the expo. This is also one of the very few buildings built for this world expo that will not be removed upon the expo's closing.

Dividing this section from "Section B" to the south is Expo Boulevard. This multilevel structure will have its main pedestrian traffic walking high above the commotion on the ground, giving people a view of the structures around them. Below this will be an area for vehicles as well as two underground levels for subterranean transit.

Below the Expo Boulevard in Section B, you will find the Urban Development Museum which is sustained solely by it solar power roof and has drainage ducts strategically placed to water it surrounding plants. Here you will also find the Expo Centre which will be held mainly for press and other media events. The majority of Section B though will belong to the pavilions of South East Asia as well as New Zealand and Australia.

Laying south of these mostly jaw dropping buildings will be the European and "Western" pavilions. All of these building will have their own special spin off theme of the Expo's Better City Better life baseline.

I will be covering the World Expo further in articles to come but for now for more information be sure to check out the posts below. Cheers

Shanghai World Expo Opening Day

As most of you are aware, today marked the first official day of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and along with it its opening ceremonies. The Opening Ceremonies kicked of on the eve of the Expo inside the Expo Centre (one of the few buildings constructed for the expo that will actually remain after October), a beautifully choreographed group of performers were accompanied by Jackie Chan and other high profile individuals to perform an extravagant display very much true to form of the nation who put on the largest Olympic opening ceremony to date. This was then followed by a spectacular fireworks display and light show high above the Huangpu river running between Pudong and Puxi. I would like to note that these fire are said by cctv to be "low carbon emission" fireworks. I love that. Yay China.



Among the Pavilions and attractions is a gondola ride up the smoke stack of a historic building where you can see much of what the expo has to offer. Many of the worlds countries are represented here and it will be interesting to see how some of these contrasting cultures behave. But with the Chinese so invested in showing the world that they can smoothly run an event of this proportion, it is unlikely that any dispute will get too out of hand. That is unless you count the massive swarms of people that everyone whom I have spoken with warn of. The advice of the locals and those who have visited is, "If you are planning on attending the Shanghai World Expo this year, you're much better off to wait a few months for the crowds to die down or risk becoming another victim of stampede.

The following video series is the most informative I have found thus far about the Expo. It covers not just the Expo’s events but the purposes of the Expo and What it means for China and the rest of the world. Enjoy the watch:

Brings a Whole New Meaning to "Commercial Music"

Recently I have noticed a growing trend in the US and specifically Asia of businesses sponsoring popular music artists to advertise their product in the musicians work. This is done often by placing a product strategically through out a popular music video or even going as far as paying the musician to create an entire song about their product. These songs often are added into the artists' CD, played in clubs, on the radio and most other places one might turn as is common with most top 40 songs. Companies such as McDonalds, HP and LG are all great examples of those taking advantage of this new take on "Commercial Music." This video was sponsored by LG promoting the release of its popular Lollipop cell phone:

National Export Initiative

Yin Yang

This shot was taken in Yuu Gardens in Shanghai and aims to express close dichotomy of the progressive and the traditional held together as one in the East.

Real vs Effective Value of the RMB to USD

The New Chinese Consumer

This is not my video, it belongs to Current.tv which is an excellent website and I suggest you all go there.