Shanghai, once the place with high expectations of cool sights and fun times, not so. The World Expo, the draw to this major city in recent times. An exhibition of what the world has to offer.  What did it exhibit? Lack of planning, chaos, and the horrible manners of the Chinese. There was only about a half hour line to catch the morning expo transport bus. With a Starbucks in hand no big deal I’m expecting a wait. The bus drops you off near the expo and you follow the herds of people toward the gates. Passing multiple security checkpoints you finally arrive at the main security gate. Hundreds of Chinese cram these lines trying to get in. As of yet I have yet to see a ticket booth but I figure after this last check point I see a “ticket change” booth. Cool.  45 min. later I pass the bag check and the metal detector. Wonder up to the booth beside the turnstiles and simply ask “can I get a ticket?” To my surprise his answer was in broken English, as well to my surprise he said “No. You can’t buy tickets here.” He then pulls out a map showing me where the ticket booth is “a 20 min walk that way.” I hang my head in despair sighing as I take the map. Where, oh where in this world is there NOT a ticket booth by the entry gate? By the time I actually made it in it was about 3 hours since I had left the hostel, I was grumpy, hungry and just about done with the expo.

Browsing around the massive land space the expo covers, is an architects and photographers dream. These buildings are amazing, country’s going well out of their way to build fantastic wonders for the eyes. I looked at a couple of pavilions including Cambodia, New Zealand, and OH CANADA. Line ups line ups line ups. Each pavilion has at least a 30 min wait. Canada was about 45-1hour. What was uncool, was the fact that even though there were gated lines, if there was more than half a foot in between the gates, them DAM CHINESE jump the line. They have no problem cutting in any place they can. Just shy of climbing over the gates they’ll do what it takes to get there faster. They will try to push past you and have no regards to where there umbrellas are swinging. So when in china, right? ELBOWS UP! Caught a couple in the face. 10pts.

So after about 2.5 – 3 hours of dealing with this I was totally done with the expo. Lots more to see, just don’t care. So back to the hostel for a much needed 4 beers and a nap.

[Show as slideshow]