A trip around the world...expo.

My last few days in China flew by! Shanghai is so very different from Beijing. While Beijing has an endless number of historical sites to see, Shanghai has more modern and financial sites, meaning a lot more shopping and recently built attractions.
We learned in lecture that before 1990, no building existed in Shanghai that was taller than 5 stories. Just two decades ago, the airport had a 2 lane bumpy road as the connection to Shanghai and there was no metro. Shanghai has grown immensly, and at such a quick pace it's mind-boggling. I think their chance to host the world expo advanced their city even more, as it allowed funding for renovation of major roads and entirely new construction of numerous hotels and building associated with hosting such a high number of visitors.
We spent both the beginning and end of the two week study abroad trip in Shanghai, with the Beijing trip in the middle. Besides seeing the expo, we toured various organizations and spent time downtown exploring places like People's Square and Nanjing Road.
Our group was priviledged to be hosted by the U.S. Ambassador and Commissioner General, José Villarreal, as special guests to the U.S. pavillion. Not only did we get to save a few hours of waiting in line, but we also had the chance to hear his first hand perspective on representing the U.S. by taking on the challenge of managing and finding sponsors for the 2010 U.S.A. Pavillion. Hearing José Villarreal speak gave our group the inside edge as we had the opportunity to better understand how a country can present themselves to others. It helped me understand what it takes to do something as big as create a representation of an entire nation.
During the remaining first day we had at the expo, a couple friends and I went through Iran and North Korea's Pavillions. Since it was their first year making an appearance at the expo, we wanted to see what it was like inside their pavillions. We also spent a few hours seeing the African pavillions and I was able to talk to a guy from Botswana who knew exactly where I went when I went on a missions trip a few years ago to Africa. Overall, every exibit we saw seemed to be a great representation of the country. The only negative part of the experience was the long lines; some countries had up to four hour wait times!
To start off our second day at the world expo, the creative director of the Shanghai Municipal exibit of the China Pavillion, Pearl Wong, gave us a tour of what she designed within the pavillion. Pearl has been a long time friend of Stacey and Howard. She is so personable and I loved hearing what she had to say about the various providence representations and what each meant to China as a whole. After seeing the Shanghai exhibit, we went to see the Hong Kong exhibit, which was impressive, especially the huge greenhouse they placed at the top of their building. Afterwords, we headed over to the Europe area, but each line was four hours long and we had to meet for a group dinner. I wanted to see Spain's pavillion so badly, but it would have been impossible in such a short period of time.
Seeing the World Expo was a great experience, especially because I was lucky enough to just happen to be in the same city that it was taking place in and with some professors with great connections to the country's representatives. In reality, the expo is a way for each nation to brand themselves. I heard that all of Italy's workers were wearing thousands of dollars of Prada clothes, while Belgium's exhibit had free chocolate samples. Switzerland's looked high tech and South Africa's had a huge soccer ball outside of it to represent the upcoming world cup. Each country has the opportunity to make a lasting impression on the visitors to their pavillion.
The U.S. did a great job of incorporating their corporate sponsors into their pavillion. The U.S. is the only country who does not receive funding from their government to create their pavillion; therefore José Villarreal had to come up with 61 million dollars worth of funding! The U.S. exhibit showcased how we are working towards sustainability, creativity and innovation while working together with diverse groups of people. It was interesting to be in China with thousands of Chinese going through the U.S. exhibit, I was proud.