World Expo, Part II

On Thursday we woke up bright and early to hit the Expo. It seemed like everyone else in Shanghai had the same idea! We decided to visit the private enterprises section. First we passed through the Asia Square again and saw some pavilions of smaller countries.

We rode the Expo bus to the other side. The private enterprises section had many pavilions of large companies, both foreign and Chinese. This area was as crowded as the countries section. For example, I wanted to visit Coca Cola's pavilion but the wait-time was over 3 hours.

Fortunately there were many other interesting places to visit. Wanda is a large Chinese company and in the above photo they are located to the left. Their pavilion is all about being environmentally friendly.

This one wall was made entirely of recycled cans.

We visited a really cool factory-built building. It was built in 24 hours and is earthquake safe, efficiently-built, and environmentally friendly. Here are some of its superlatives:

Then we went to the Urban Best Practices Area, which displayed different cities around the world and their innovations which make the more environmentally-friendly, healthy, and livable.

There was Seoul, Korea...

Bologna, Italy...

Izmir, Turkey...

Spain's Barcelona, and many others...

We also saw the Future Pavilion, which showcased new technologies and visions for our future.

Afterwards, we saw some more Urban Best Practices, including Pondicherry, India...

Alsace, France...

Madrid, Spain.

I wish we had more time to browse each pavilion slowly so I could really absorb all the information but since there were so many people, so many pavilions, and so little time, it was all rush rush rush - like a speed-tour of the world. Maybe if I had a month to explore to Expo, I would be able to really explore and understand each country's history, culture, and future.