Here comes the last round of pictures from the trip around China, this time from the Expo in Shanghai. The Expo has widely been seen as the second part in China’s two-year coming-out party to the world — the first part being the Olympics in Beijing — and one of the theme songs for the Expo was titled “The world watches China”.
The world does watch China — investors look at the growth of the economy, business looks at the rise in domestic consumption, governments watch its growing political power, and the rest of us watch as more than a billion people are slowly lifted out of poverty. But the Expo probably isn’t the best example of the world watching China — rather, it was the rest of the world hoping that China would have a look at us. Countries and corporations paid huge amounts of money to build extravagant Expo pavilions, all in the name of promoting trade, introducing new products to the huge numbers of Chinese consumers and potential business contacts who have already visited the Expo, or simply just improving — or creating — a brand image for that country in China.
Some countries, like the US, didn’t need the Expo to build on its brand image, and built the most basic pavilion that saving political face would allow (and even though it was, according to reports, nothing special, the line to enter was still more than three hours long when we there). Smaller and less wealthy countries either contributed with a tiny stall in one of the larger buildings, or went for something simple — like Cuba, which essentially set up a large box with a bar selling Cuba Libres, Mojitos and Daquiris, a backdrop of Havana painted on the wall, and salsa music playing in the background. North Korea’s pavilion was also essentially a simple box, with replicas of a small bridge and water fountain, the text “Paradise for People” on the wall, and a small bookshop selling the collected works of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
But many countries had gone all-out. One of the longest lines was more than four hours and was for the Saudi Arabian pavilion, a huge structure complete with an IMAX theatre inside. Japan and South Korea also had huge pavilions with huge lines. Our first stop was the Swedish pavilion, which had a (moderate) wait of one hour to get in. The focus was very much on Swedish industry and how it can be of benefit to China — which seemed like a good use of the huge investment that goes into this sort of event. Larger countries that had the funds and placed a high priority on building closer economic ties with China took the investment very seriously.
Each pavilion tried to out-do the others in terms of creativity. One of my favorites was the Spanish pavilion, which we didn’t have time to visit, but is apparently bringing in a chef from a different region of Spain for each week of the Expo, and the chefs together have a total of 49 Michelin stars. Many Westerners associate “Chinese” food with the small selection available in Chinese restaurants in the West, and don’t necessarily realize what an incredible diversity of cuisines there are in different regions in China. The same goes for Chinese perceptions of “Western” food, and given that for many people outside of the Beijing and Shanghai, Pizza Hut and McDonalds essentially represent Western food, I’m glad that Spain has used the Expo as an opportunity to introduce the rich variety of Spanish food to its visitors.
The highlight, of course, was the amazing architecture, and that alone made the Expo worth visiting. Unfortunately everyone else in Shanghai felt the same way (and everyone working for a state-owned company was sent on a company field trip to keep the visitor numbers high), and so the lines are ridiculously long. But all in all, it was still very much worth the visit, and whether the Expo really was “the world watching China”, at the very least it was another step on the path to closer ties.
Chinese pavilion
By the entrance
A Dala Horse in front of the Swedish pavilion
The somewhat surreal seed-themed British pavilion