World Expo 2010

After getting the most amazing foot massage, I headed out to the to other side of the Huangpu River to check out the site of the 2010 World Expo. I had heard that all the buildings were still there but only a very select few still open. Of course the highlight to the Chinese is the Chinese Pavilion, which wasn't open today.

Then just behind this was the Mercedes Benz Expo, kinda a cool looking building. This is where the China Basketball Association plays now.

Totally looks like a space ship!

 

Meet the 2010 Expo Mascot, which looks a lot like a blue version of Gumby

Right?!

The Expo park was kinda of sad knowing that there was so much time and effort put into these pavilions that are no longer in use. It's a HUGE park but only a few people actually still interested in checking it out. Apparently the star of the Expo was the Saudi Arabia Pavilion. People waited 10 hours to view the wrap-around movie screen, which I just bought a ticket from a scalper and walked in today. It was not worth a 10 hour wait but was kinda cool. It gave a good perspective of what their country looks like which I hadn't really thought of before. Not a area of the world that had been on my radar of interest.

A distant view of the Saudi Arabia Pavilion, you can't really tell but the building is held up by about 8 pillars

This is the slow moving walkway that you ride to see the wrap-around movie screen

This was pretty cool, the film played all around me as I slowly moved on the walkway

View from the top of the pavilion

The walk back down through the center of the pavilion.

The was also the Shanghai Jazz festival going on in this same park region, it was nice to walk around this area and listen to some good tunes.

There seemed to be some fun art around the Expo park but with all
 the fencing that was up you could only see parts of the really big pcs. Here's an example.

Here are some other pavilions in the Asia portion of the Expo. I didn't make it to the beyond Asia portion b/c it was too far away and my legs wanted to give walking up forever by this point.

Nepal Pavilion

Some were way more lame then others. Vietnam and Laos.

Inside expo park was an actual park called Bailianjing Park. This was a totally
different view of the riverfront then I'd seen before.

The park also had some fun art. Like this one, meant to represent
China's talent in Embroidery.

Wind powered tree shaped tea houses by an Italian artist Enrico Taranta.
Meant to catch the attention of children and get their creative juices flowing on  a sustainable future.

Creepy horses

 I eventually made my way back to the Metro and went to the end of the line in hopes of finding this place:

When I first got here the place was packed with Europeans, Australians and New Zeelanders

all watching the Rugby semi-finals. I managed to get a seat at the bar and met an american man

here for the fabric show this week. His name was Bruce and we drank a few beers together. The

beer was my treat to myself for the long run earlier in the day. It was nice to have a conversation

with someone who's first language is English.

Now I'm off to bed early so I can get up and go for another run. I miss you all!!