Shanghai Expo One Day Solutions
How to make efficient use of your day time in the Expo site? The following route could give you some inspiration and hint.
Expo Sites consist of Pudong and Puxi area. Pudong includes Area A, B, C with the Expo Axis, China Pavilion, Expo Theme Pavilion, Performing Arts Center and Expo Center, etc. and all national pavilions inside. Corporate pavilions, Pavilion of Future and Urban best Practice Area are located in Area D, E in Puxi.
Day tour in Shanghai World Expo
Morning
It is recommended to enter the Expo Site from Area B entrance for its close distance to "One axis and four pavilions" ( respectively Expo Axis, China Pavilion, Expo Theme Pavilion, Performing Arts Center and Expo Center). Festival Square is located at the end of Expo Axis where the opening ceremony performed. Then go to the Expo Center, the opening ceremony performance site for each National Pavilion.
After visiting the Expo Center, you can go to the theme pavilions to observe the Urban Footprints, Urban Planet, Urban Dwellers, Urban Beings, and Urban Dreams. These are all in one building, Please choose the shortest queue first for everyone have to line up for each pavilion.
After visiting theme Pavilions, go north along the Shiboguan Road and you will find the New Zealand Pavilion. Maori dance will give you a warm welcome before you entering the hall; highlights here is the vivid wonderful New Zealand sceneries which was created by "Lord of the Rings" special effects team via using imaging technology.
Out from the New Zealand Pavilion and go west and you then reach Australia Pavilion. They offer a 160 meters fully enclosed glass walkway for the visitors to view Australia's history in the "travel" activity area. Besides, there are plenty of group performances here as well.
Once you are out of the Australia Pavilion, you will face the Thailand Pavilion with rich Thai style characteristic. If you want, you can photo with "A Tai", the mascot there.
If time permits, you can visit others pavilions in Area B, like the Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, etc. at the south of Bocheng Road. Or visit World Meteorological Center, the Union Pacific Pavilion, the United Nation Joint Pavilion, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Joint Pavilion and the International Information Network Development Pavilion at the North of Bocheng Road.
Lunch
After vesting so many pavilions, time to pamper your stomach. You can go to the Chinese Food Street between the Expo Center and the Theme Pavilions where offers various dishes from all over the country.
Afternoon
Area A
As well as the Chinese National Pavilion, Cultural Center (in the northeast of the Expo Center) is a "must-see spot" where two free performances twice are displayed by China Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (National Song and Dance Ensemble) every day. Please check the schedule for the performance time which may vary each day.
Enter the China National Pavilion during your reservation time. There are a few highlights inside deserving your visit: circle of toughened glass floor over the Awaiting Square, an 8-minute film narrating the city construction of generations and the no-miss illuminating Chinese painting--more than 100 meters long--Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. Then you can descend to 41st floor for a sightseeing train trip. Finally you can go to 33rd floor to learn about the low-carbon city life in China.
If you are not interested in local Pavilions, you can just skip them. And when you are out of local pavilions, you will face the Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong pavilions. The LED dome lanterns; lying on the floor and watching the ceiling film and the reflective mirror design are most significant features of the three Halls. Exiting from the Hong Kong pavilion, walking along the Guozhan Road towards northeast direction will lead you to the United Arab Emirates Pavilion, which is said to be taken apart and shipped back to Abu Dhabi for reassembling after the Expo. Inside, you will enjoy the view of the Middle East and gain the virtual experience of the United Arab Emirates dream trip. Try your luck in the drawing here to win one-week trip to the UAE.
By the United Arab Emirates Pavilion is Israel Pavilion. High-tech varying from diesel fuel extracted from plants to installing smart colts onto cows' feet will give you an incredible tech trip. Easily getting examined via swallowing a photography capsule to photograph your body organs will give you a big surprise here.
In the north of Israel Pavilion stands the Saudi Arabia Pavilion which was constructed with the largest investment and has the largest IMAX cinema among all the foreign pavilions.
Japan Pavilion, in the northeast of Saudi Arabia Pavilion, shapes like a space fortress in cartoons. It highlights with high technology in its high resolution cameras and telescopes and the violin-playing robots, etc.
There are also many other Asia pavilions including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, India, Qatar, Lebanon, Iran, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, South Korea National Pavilions and three Asian joint Pavilions in Area A.
Area C
If you prefer to visit some European and American pavilions, then please take the environmental friendly short-refute vehicle from Area A to Area C.
Belgium Pavilion will provide 25,000 individually wrapped Belgian chocolates for free each day. Tasting the authentic Belgian chocolate and enjoying the 2-hour-diamond-polishing performance here will be unforgettable experience.
Little Mermaid presented in Denmark Pavilion will catch your eyes and if you want, you can also splash in their swimming pool and feel the ocean gently touching your toes.
Spain National Pavilion is located in the north of Finland National Pavilion shaped like a rattan basket. You can also enjoy the Latin music and dance at the indoor square and get to know about the history of Spain.
When you face an art palace building on the west of Spain Pavilion, it must be the France Pavilion. Many treasures, including Rodin's "Bronze Age" and so on are exhibited here. Maybe you can witness the 2010 pairs of couples' new romantic weddings held inside if you are lucky.
When you come out of the French Pavilion, you will find the bright UK Pavilion with tens of thousands of light-emitting feelers light up during the day through the optical fiber transmission for indoor lighting. When at night, they will light up the entire building through the built-in lights.
If you are interested in famous Sun circus, please go to the Canadian Pavilion which is located at the southwest of Area C. You can ride a bike in front of the three-dimensional images which will make you feel like traveling in Canada inside this three separated building.
Once exiting Canadian Pavilion, you can continue going westward and will find the United States Pavilion with a media waterfall as its outer wall. Inside the pavilion, there will be Chinese-American youth on the media screen imagining the future time and space with you.
Walk along the Houtan Road and head for north when you are out of the U.S. Pavilion, you can see the African Join Pavilion which is also the last pavilion in this direction. Some strong African elements decorated the outside the pavilion and the African market inside will offer you an excellent place for you to buy some African souvenirs to take back home.
Turkey, Brazil, Luxembourg, Finland, Norway, Russia, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Kenya and other European African, North and South American national pavilions are also in Area C for your reference.
Evening
Dinner
According to the media report, Puxi Area is far less popular than the Pudong Area. Therefore Puxi area might be your best choice to hunt for dinner.
Area D and E
Puxi Area is also worthy of your stroll. You will find it is as fantastic as the Pudong Area. It owns corporate pavilions and "Urban best Practice Area" where exhibit how countries endeavor to improve the quality of urban life. E.g. the French Roa Pavilion's lighting is very beautiful in the evening.
Subway line 8 or the ferry can carry you to Area D which houses the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Pavilion converted from an old factory. You can get to know about the China's ship making history as well as the model of Zheng He Treasure Ship inside this pavilion.
Exiting from the Chinese Ship Pavilion and walking towards the Nanpu Bridge, you will find several China's Private Enterprises Pavilions. As China's largest real estate companies, Vanke pavilion is creatively made of compressed wheat stalks. You can take a glance at China's future urban life in the year of 2049 here.
Yuanda Pavilion locates besides Vanke. The construction completed in short time and has well embodied the idea of environmental protection. The new energy saving air-conditioning system is also displayed here. Anyway, Yuanda Pavilion highlights the cylindrical sculpture in the air which is a 50 million times magnified human DNA, composed by hundreds of different sized transparent spheres with helium, glittering under the sun filled inside.
If you want to know more about recyclable environmental protection building materials which can eliminate air pollution and noise pollution, you can go to the Information Science and Technology Pavilion.
If you are interested in auto, then you can go to the Shanghai Automotive--General Motors Pavilion. You can feel the excitement of moving through the future cities and nature in the world's sophisticated visual and dynamic experience.
16 1.5-meters in diameter ecological aquariums exhibit nearly all kinds of marine life under your feet if you enter the Private Corporate Pavilion.
The "Magic Box" uses six-face LED screen display mode, integrating with environmental concepts and world-class high technology in National Grid Pavilion.
Finally, take a boat at the Water Gate Terminal and enjoying Huangpu River's pretty night views as well as the panoramic view of Expo Sites as the ending of your day tour of Shanghai World Expo.
Tips
Expo visiting tips:
1. Preparation makes work half done. Before the expo tour, an extensive preparation like the reference of the expo travelogues, expo maps, routes helps you to shape your own efficient expo itinerary.
2. Avoid the rush days or hours is crucial for an efficient tour: the Chinese holidays like May Holiday (first three days of May), National Holiday (First week of Oct.), the weekends, School summer holidays (late July to early Sept.) and the peak hour like 10 am and 2pm will often become more heavily busy than usual time.
3. When you enter the site, it is better to consult the volunteer to know about the pavilion queue information, the entrances to the pavilion before you line up for the entrance.
4. The expo site maps and the performances' time schedule are available in the consulting lot. And an early visit to consultation is required to ensure the availability.
5. Pay attention to the radio broadcast, the information screen, etc. to gather the handy information since volunteers or staffs are only familiar with their service area rather than the detailed information about the pavilion exhibition, performance information and so on.
6. Apart from the Theme Pavilion and China Pavilion, the rest of the pavilions are only required to queue for entrance rather than the reservation. Please note that some of China's pavilions need to queue for the entrance reservation ticket in front of the pavilion and the reservation ticket is distributed in different time ranges. If you are not sure about the availability, please consult the pavilion volunteers or the expo staffs.
7. The pavilions with free souvenirs are usually pretty popular with the Chinese tourists. Such pavilions can be saved for later tour.
Items suggested & prohibited:
Suggested items: valid passport, comfortable walking shoes, cash, camera or video recorder, sunglasses, hats and sunscreen, tissues or wet wipes, feeding bottle and baby carriage, convenience food like cookies and chocolates.
Prohibited items: explosive, flammable, radioactive and other hazardous items, knives, firework, match/ lighters, sharp-point subject (like long umbrella), water/drinks, pets, radio equipments, etc.
It is advised to put all the things in one bag rather than place them in your pockets. In this way, you don't have to fish them out from different pockets and the security screening time can be reduced.
Dining tip:
Avoid the dining rush hour. The time around 11am is usually the dining peak that you can consider to skip to avoid the crazily jostle of the diners if possible.
Shopping tips:
The expo souvenirs are easily available in the Shanghai malls and thus it is no need to purchase too many of them in the site.