World Expo

We have been to the World Expo twice. Both times were with Abi when she was here visiting. Here are some sights from those visits.

The first day we went to the Expo we got there about 1:30 in the afternoon. The Expo hotline said that 350,000 people had already enter the gates that day. They estimated it would reach 400,000 before the day ended. That is about 1/2 of the population of the Portland, Oregon metro area.

We knew there would be long lines at the most popular pavilions....rumors from the newspaper said that people were waiting in line for 9 hours to get into the Saudi Arabia pavilion and 7 hours to get into the Japan pavilion. At about three o'clock in the afternoon they started announcing the pavilions that had closed their lines. That meant that the last person in line would just reach the pavilion by closing time.....closing time is 10:00 or 11:00 pm. The temperature on the first day we went was hovering around 40 C....that is 104 F.... plus the humidity which adds about another 100 degrees.....well not really 100 degrees but it feels like it!!!

Our mission was to find the pavilions with the shortest lines.....we are very impatient Americans!




This is inside the Chile pavilion.....there was a huge wooden ball in the center of the building and the walkway wrapped around the ball.


I think this was the line for the Canadian building. This was the longest line we stood in and it was about 45 minutes. There were water sprayers and fans in more of the line queueing areas.

Look at that blue sky!!!! What a treat!

lines....lines....lines....and more lines....

We ate lunch in this building....

The red building in the background is the Chinese Pavilion. We can see this building from our apartment. It is perfectly centered in the Nanpu bridge. We walked over to see the outside of the building.....and...luck was with us because the line had ended before closing and they were just opening it up again.

See Tim taking a picture of the machine taking a video of him and Abi..

These pictures are from the inside of the Chinese pavilion. Each providence had it's own display.







Well...that is just a few of the buildings. The Expo site is so large that we barely had time to see the outside of 1/2 the pavilions. Our overall impression was WOW! This is really pretty cool....and we did not expect to be dazzled. I would say the Expo was much more interactive and inclusive than the Olympics. Just my opinion of course : )

Yesterday

Last night Tim and I went to Xintandi for dinner. When Abi was here we discovered that one of our favorite pizza places in Hong Kong has moved to Shanghai. I took Tim there and we sat outside enjoying the nice weather.

A very large beer....

A very very large beer....

Tim drinking the very very large beer....

We also went to the Nankeen Exhibition Hall to see the traditional batik display and museum.

I love this part.....they hang the fabric outside in the trees to dry....soooooo cool

New glasses......I can't text anymore without glasses....and it is a real pain to dig through my purse every time.....so....a birthday....and full time glasses wearing...what a month!

Breakfast at East West

The weather has been improved significantly over the past week. The evenings and mornings are much more bearable. We had breakfast outside last Friday.

Karen, Kathy, Angie, and Shelly

Rebbecca

It's Sunday morning here in the big city. I can see blue sky and white clouds.

Norma's visit...I love this picture!
We sort of look like Thing 1 and Thing 2.
This is the only picture that I took the whole time Norma was visiting. We were just so busy exploring that I forgot to get my camera out.

You have to love Shanghai traffic!

This car is stuck between two buses. He is going across traffic and I am not sure how he got there in the first place? As far as I know there is not an entrance to the road here because on the right side of the buses there is a park and a sidewalk but no drive way. Although...thinking about this a little more.....he probably drove down the sidewalk to get around some of the traffic and is now "re-entering" the road.

Mr. Zheng (our driver) is sometimes creative in this way. A few weeks ago he drove off the road, went through a hotel driveway, over the sidewalk and down a few back alleys and came out way in front of the line of traffic we were originally behind. The funny thing about this.....it did not even phase me....in fact I thought....Wow! That was really clever! I think this is a sign that we have adapted to our environment.

Tah Dah!!!

I am back online after a long......pause...... Much has happened since June 18th and I want to report that all is well.

Updates and News:

Abi was here in Shanghai for about 5 weeks this summer. It was great fun having her around and we did a bit of "shopping damage" during those weeks. She is now back in Bellingham waiting for school to start. She will be working at the college book store for the next three weeks and then at Michaels Craft and Hobby store during the school year.

Tucker has a permanent position in Seattle with Art E Fact and is really enjoying his job and the people that he is working with. Sounds like he and Hattie will staying in the Pacific Northwest for a while !!! Yeah!

My good friend, Norma Merrett, popped over last week from Japan. We did some power shopping and site seeing around the big city and packed a lot of activities into the 2 days she was here. We even looked at apartments for rent.....they may be moving to Shanghai.....just about the time we are leaving....timing is totally off!!!

Tim continues to be busy in ChongQing and spends half of his week there and half of the week in Shanghai. BTW.....we are moving back to the US in January. We have been asked to stay...and stay...and stay....but we have decided to come home for a while. We have had sooooooo many amazing adventures during our 4 years in China....yes...that's right....it will be 4 years in January AND we are a bit "culturally fatigued". It is time for some rejuvenation.

Well...that is the short of it.....back later with more

We are off to dinner and then to the boardwalk for people watching! We went last weekend and one of the highlights.....a lady in a leopard print night gown sang to us. The song was in Mandarin but ended in perfect English.....Long live Chairman Mao! Not kidding!!!!