This post is the first one of a series about my visit to the Shanghai World Expo 2010. I will start with a description of the crowd present at the Expo, more than 300.000 people per day! The pavilions and their exhibitions are only one aspect of the Expo; it is also a meeting place, not only for business men, but for people from all over China and the world. No need to travel the many villages and cities of China to discover its people, they are all right here. This makes a rather eclectic and disorganised crowd, but that’s what makes it so interesting for a foreigner. Families come here with their meals and vegetables, students come in groups, very few westerners also join the crowd.
Volunteers and employees from the Expo received some training and can say key sentences in English. English is manifestly new for them and the very young employees at the entrance of the Expo were quite shy when reciting the sentences. But they were very happy to help westerners. They did much more than simply following the instructions of their trainings. It was true hospitality. Great job guys!
The queues were the most playful and most instructive part. They look at first like a nightmare; some queues can be 4 hours long with a temperature above 30 degrees. Chinese people don’t respect queues; they push constantly one another and try to get in front of you. But as unbelievable as it seems, the system works. You need to fight for your position every minute, every turn in the line is a battlefield, and you should not show any pity for old women who are by the way the worst pushers. If you follow these instructions, you will stay at a fair position in the queue. Everyone does the same. What I realised though is that the mood is playful; people are excited until the end of the queue, which would not be the case in a disciplined queue of westerners. People speak a lot and fighting for your position helps you not being bored in the very long queues. They were some fights between women at some occasions, but the crowd was very quick at separating them and laughing at them. The limit between playfulness and angriness was very subtle but strongly reinforced by the crowd. Not that I would like to be in such a queue if there was a fire or an accident, but in normal conditions, it works pretty well and is the occasion to meet verbally, or at least physically Chinese people.
Chinese people were also very well informed on the most interesting pavilions. There was no improvisation here and everyone knew exactly where he wanted to go. The weapon of mass destruction however was the fake passport that people could buy on the site. It became for most visitors the main objective of the Expo: collect the stamps of all pavilions to get their passports complete. The only opportunity left for a quieter expo was late in the evening, between 7 and 10pm, when queues are getting smaller and faster, but not for all pavilions.
Overall, I had a good time and could still manage to see around 30 pavilions in 2 days.
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Thanks for your post! I am in Shanghai now and will be going to the World Expo today. I have heard about the queues at the expo but had no idea what I am getting myself into. Thanks a lot for the heads up, I really needed that, at least to know how I can stay in position. I don’t know which country I will go to yet, where did you go? What are your favorite? I will visit the expo for at two days. Thanks!
Thanks for your feedback!
The queues are probably shorter now than when the Expo started, don’t worry. The national pavilions with the longer queues were the Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, UK, Russia, and the China one of course. I didn’t visit them all but I believe that they have the biggest, expensive ‘wow’ stuff to see. My favourites from the ones I visited at the Expo where the Netherlands (no queues), UK, France and Canada. And the less crowded Urban best practices area is probably the most educative scientifically, even though it is less dramatic. But I probably missed many great pavilions and everyone has its own favourites, so don’t rely too much on this list! 
It’s interesting how you view your experience at the Shanghai World Expo in a positive light, because I definitely didn’t see it the same way as you did! I never felt the mood was “playful” when queuing in line. It was downright horrible for me! What does the slogan, “Better City, Better Life,” mean when there’s trash everywhere in the queue lines, people are shoving your back to the point where your feet are off the ground (you’re right, it’s typically the middle-aged to old little women), un-flushed toilets, and people letting their kids defecate on the walkways? Why are they attending this if they’re not even getting the message?
I am an American-born Chinese with a closer connection with Taiwan. This was my first trip to China, and was very disappointed with the mannerisms of the people there. I got into a little spat with a tiny old lady who stood up to my shoulder, even though that’s socially unacceptable in the Chinese culture… But my reason was that she was shoving my dad’s back.
Maybe I set myself up for this disappointment though. I had expectations already in place for China, and they were not met when I went to the Expo. The people in China, as a whole, really need to be educated about the world. I’m hoping the best for China next time I visit, which will probably be in another 10 years!
Glad that you had a great time though!
Many thanks for sharing your experience Tiffany! I’m sorry to hear that it was not so good. Chinese people living in big cities such as Hong Kong are acting in a more polite way I think. So it is maybe another idea for your next travel to China, which has still a very uneven exposure to the world, you’re right. All the best!