Expositions

In my previous entry, I mentioned it was my Chinese friend who got me curious about the Expo 2010 Shanghai China and  the main purpose of our trip was to attend the Expo 2010, we initially planned to go to ALL the Pavilions especially that of China but to our dismay this was IMPOSSIBLE due to the long lines aside from that most of the best Pavilions were RSVP and were already fully booked till the last day

Expo 2010's Symbol the China Pavilion photo by: ji

World Expositions are galleries of human inspirations and thoughts; from my experience it is basically a showcase of countries' cultures, it gives a glimpse of how it is to live in that country (well at least for most of the Pavilions that I went in to).  The theme of the Expo 2010 was " Better City, Better Life",  most of the Pavilions, especially those of developed countries presented their ideas and inspirations of better living in future urban environments. You would be stunned of the presentation and amazed by the ideas and inspirations, it made me want to live in the future at that moment.


Facts:
1851,The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London held the very first Expo, it was commonly called "The Great Exhibition"

Image source: Wikipedia

1851- 1938: The first era World Expositions focused on trade and famous for the display of technological inventions and advancements from around the world

1889: Exposition Universelle. Each host of the Exposition has a main symbol, for this particular fair which was held in Paris, France the symbol is the Eiffel Tower which was completed in 1889.

Image Source: Wikipedia

1939-1987: Cultural Exchange - fairs were more strongly based on cultural significance and began to address the issues of humankind, exchange of solutions became defining elements of the expos.

1988- Present: Nation Branding - in Tjaco Walvis' "Expo 2000 Hanover Numbers" shows that improving the national image was the primary participation goal of the countries. ( based on my experience I think Expo 2010 showed elements from each era)

Expo 2010 Shanghai was open from May 1 to October 31, 2010.

Image Source: http://en.expo2010.cn/

The expected visitor for the entire duration was 70 million, according to wikipedia a total of 73,084,400 visitors were admitted to the Expo during the six-month run of the expo.

2012, Yeosu, South Korea will host the Expo with the theme " The Living Ocean and Coast" (as early as now I am saving for this trip, I saw the plans and scale model for this Expo and it looks promising.)

Image Source: http://eng.expo2012.or.kr/eng/preview/specialization_01.asp

Expo 2020, Manila, Philippines has expressed its intent to bid with the theme " Manila, Celebrating Light and Life" I kid you not! This kind of ticked me off err No more Comment


Will be posting my Expo 2010 Shanghai Experience next..