Where to buy Shanghai Expo Tickets

Expo Volunteer Service on the street

It is easy to make inquiries about Expo 2010 while staying in Shanghai. Expo information services supported by volunteers are available in high streets, Metro Stations, and China Mobile shops of Shanghai city center. Inquires in English language could be made via the Shanghai Call by dialing 962288 from any landline or local mobile phones in Shanghai. The 24-hour hotline, Shanghai Call, is operated by China Telecom, and staff could handle with ticket sales, licensed products, site tours, and complaints. Besides, inquiry services provided by China Mobile are also available in English language at 12580. The official Expo hotline at +86-21-962010 provides services in 12 languages including English, French, and Japanese, etc.

Expo tickets

Upon arrival at Shanghai city on our first day, we obtained ticketing information from the Expo Volunteer Service Counter (see attached photo). The 3-day admission tickets can only be purchased from the Bank of Communication. Since it was already in the afternoon at the time of our inquiry, the 3-day admission tickets had already been sold out in the nearby branch. We had to travel to the official point of sales running by the Bank of Communication located at Number 80, Nanjing East Road (see attached photo). This is about 10 minutes walk from the Nanjing East Road Metro Station. All sorts of tickets, except the evening tickets, are always available in this sales point with closure at 4:30pm each day. The standard single day admission tickets  are for sale at various places in Shanghai including selective local supermarkets, convenience stores, or on-site sales points. For the evening tickets, people can only obtain them from the sales points at the entrances to the Expo site. For prices and classifications of tickets, please refer to my previous blog dated May 4, 2010. Apart from local sales, overseas visitors can purchase tickets via authorized travel agents in their countries. 

Please be reminded that the Standard Tickets cannot be used during the period between October, 1 and 7, 2010 (National Day Holiday) as well as between  October 25 and 30, 2010 (the last week before the closure of the Expo). People have to use Peak Day Tickets instead. Although it is now more than 2 months before October, sales for the Peak Day tickets are very tight. Admission tickets for the Expo closure on October 31, 2010 have already been sold out. It is not sure whether or not there are any more sales. Tickets for October 30 are temporarily out of stock. There are limited number of tickets left for October 1.

Official point of sales for Expo tickets

 

Shanghai Hotel Accommodations Close to Expo Gate 2

People who would like to visit Expo 2010 always ask questions regarding Shanghai hotel accommodations. Based on my personal experience, I could only tell something about the hotels in where we stayed recently. Please refer to my previous blogs dated July 18 and July 27, 2010. We had been to Shanghai a number of times. For the hotels in where we stayed years ago, I would not mention them because the information might be out of date. In my impression, it is not difficult to get a room reservation. Hotel accommodations seem to be sufficiently supplied during the Expo period in Shanghai. Room charges are reasonable. Hotel accommodations in China are generally inexpensive when comparing to those in many other countries.

We greatly enjoyed our visits to the Expo 2010. When we were passing through Gate 2 of the Expo site, we spotted a few hotels/ motels nearby. They are located opposite to or by the side of Gate 2, South Xizang Road, in Puxi. Please refer to the following photographs of the mentioned hotels. They are estimated to be within 5 to 15 minutes walk from Expo Gate 2 as well as the South Xizang Road Metro Station. It is convenient as of Expo visits. However, I know nothing about the qualities of these hotels.

I believe that there should be more hotels located in the area close to Expo Gate 2, but we didn't see them. If people would like to stay in a hotel within a walking distance to the Expo site, these hotels may be of good choices. Puxi is an old residential area at the west side of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The gates at the Expo Puxi Section apparently are comparatively close to the residential area than those at the Pudong Section. Pudong is a newly developed area with better city planning. Roads are large and wide. Therefore, the distance between the Expo Pudong Gates and residential areas could be far apart. It may take a long time for travelers to walk from their hotels to the gates, even though the hotels may claim that they are close to the Expo gates. 

We spotted a small hotel outside Expo Gate 2

There is a hotel behind the gate

This is the hotel of the previous photo. The name of the hotel could now be identified.

This is another hotel opposite to Expo Gate 2

The hotel is estimated to be within 15 minutes away from Expo Gate 2

The hotel is estimated to be within 15 minutes away from Expo Gate 2

Note: These hotels may have other branches using the same names located at different sites of Shanghai.

Comparisons between Shanghai Marvel Hotel and Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel

Shanghai Marvel Hotel room view

We stayed in the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel in our previous visit to the Expo 2010 in May. The Renaissance is a 5-star grand hotel located in the Putuo district. The room in where we were staying was super deluxe (Please refer to the photographs in my previous blog dated July 18, 2010 entitled "Going to Shanghai Expo again"). The hotel is brand new just opened this May. The Langao  Station of Metro Line 7  is just located opposite to the hotel. This is 9 stops away from the Houtan Station for the access to the Expo site through Gate 8. Metro Line 7 can also take visitors directly to the Changqing Road Station, Yaohua Road Station, and West Gaoke Road Station for the access to the Expo Gate 7, 6, and 5 respectively. The only deficit of the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel is that there is a lack of shopping facilities nearby.

Shanghai Marvel Hotel room view

This time, we stayed in the Shanghai Marvel Hotel which is located right in the heart of the city, opposite to the People's Square. The hotel is surrounded by many popular shopping arcades and transport links Number 1, 2, and 8 Metro Lines. The Metro station, Daishiji, is just located next to the hotel. Metro Line 8 goes directly to the Expo site stopping either at South Xizang Road Station to reach Expo Gate 2 or Yaohua Road station to reach Expo Gate 6. There are only two stops between Daishiji and South Xizang Road Stations. Starting my journey from the Marvel Hotel at 08:40am, I reached the Expo  Entrance Gate 2 at 09:00am. The Marvel Hotel is close to many famous tourist spots such as the Bund, Yu Garden, and Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. The hotel is also not far away from the Yan'an Road Sub-River Tunnel going across the river to Pudong.

Shanghai Marvel Hotel bathroom view

The Marvel Hotel previously was the building of YMCA which was built in 1929. Therefore, it is also named as Marvel YMCA Hotel. It is now a heritage building with modern interior facilities. The building was fully renovated early this year. Therefore, we did not feel anything old inside the hotel. The room was quite nice, spacious and comfortable. The bathroom is completely separated from the sitting area (See attached photos and video). Complimentary broadband internet access is available in the room.

When comparing with the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel, the 4-star Marvel Hotel charges less and is more convenient. Just outside the Marvel Hotel, an Expo Volunteer Counter is available on the street. If you target for the Expo visit, the Marvel Hotel may be a good choice. However, if you would like to enjoy a peaceful and super comfortable environment, you may consider the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel. We like both of them.

The lobby of Shanghai Marvel Hotel

Shanghai Marvel Hotel - Room view

Hotel Planner

Transportation from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Downtown

Mobile phone vending machine

Many people asked as how to form their own tours to the world exposition in Shanghai. In this post, I am going to write more details about our journey to reach Shanghai city center.

On July 19, 2010, we took Cathay Pacific CX368 which departed Hong Kong at 08:55am and landed Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 11:30am. On arrival, we immediately felt the atmosphere of Expo 2010. There were propaganda and there was an Expo Mascot Haibao cartoon welcoming us. The way getting through the immigration gate was quick as there were quite a large number of check-out points. Disposable mobile phone vending machines, Expo volunteer service, transport information machine, and tourist information center are available in the arrival hall. 

Expo Volunteers

There are several options for visitors to travel from Pudong Airport to Shanghai downtown. Apart from 10 airport bus lines, Maglev Trains and Subway Trains are in services. It takes only 8 minutes for the Meglev Train to run from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road station. The service operates at an interval of 15 to 20 minutes starting from 06:45am to 09:40pm every day. The charge is CNY50. From Longyang Road Station, visitors can transfer to Metro Line 2 which passes through many of Shanghai's popular locations (See MTR map below). For a trip from Longyang Road Station to city center, the taxi fare is estimated to be over CNY100. We experienced the Meglev Train ride about 2 years ago, and I forgot the taxi fare for the connection. The fare could be even higher if there is a traffic jam. Traffic jam is common in Shanghai during peak hours.

Apart from the Meglev Train, travelers can also take Metro Line 2 located between Terminal 1 and 2 at the Pudong Airport. The Metro Line service is much cheaper (CNY9 for the entire journey), but it takes longer time, perhaps an hour, to reach downtown hotels.  In addition, it needs to get change to the main branch Metro Line 2 at Guanglan Road Station (See MTR map below).

Shanghai Pudong International Airport

We decided to take taxi for transportation to city center. The taxi stand is just outside the arrival hall of the airport. There were only a few passengers waiting for the taxi at the time of our arrival. Our destination was Marvel Hotel which is located right in the center of Shanghai, opposite to the People's Square. The 35-minutes journey cost us CNY168. On the way, we saw a new railway station under construction, and we spotted the Oriental Pearl Tower in the far distance. The 2010 Expo site then appeared from far to close views. Indeed, we were approaching towards the Expo direction. As our taxi was up on a highway, we could only see the magnificent China Pavilion which was high enough to catch our sights. We also spotted Australia Pavilion because it just sat beside the highway. Indeed, we were on the flyover going across the Expo site. Going ahead, our taxi passed through the Lupu Bridge which connects Pudong and Puxi over the Huangpu River. When we caught sight of the Expo Puxi section, we couldn't identify the pavilions because most pavilions were not very high and the taxi ran very fast. By the time we arrived at Marvel Hotel, it was 12:40pm. 

Shanghai Metro Line Map

(Click to enlarge the map)

Going to Shanghai Expo Again

Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel

My husband and I visited the Shanghai Expo 2010 in May. We enjoyed the trip very much. It is fantastic. We had acquired a lot of knowledge from the Expo. We introduced it to our friends. They like it too.  We stayed in the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel which is a branch of the Marriott chain. The hotel was brand new just opened in May 2010 at the time of our stay. It was very nice. Please see attached photographs for the room views The buffet was so rich that it gave us sufficient energy for the Expo walk. The Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel is not close to the Expo site, but it is just next to the underground Metro Line 7.  Therefore,  it is convenient. The deficit is that there are insufficient shopping facilities nearby. There is only a small convenience store and a few low-price restaurants nearby.

Renaissance Shanghai Putuo Hotel

We will be going to Shanghai Expo again. We will take the Cathay Pacific Airways flight tomorrow early morning. Since we know the Expo well, we don't make much preparation. My husband reminds me to bring along with my cap. Last time, I wore my cap even though inside the pavilions. It was because I moved around in the crowds to take photographs and videos. My white cap could easily catch my husband's eyes so that he could fetch me in the crowds. Since we have already visited the most popular pavilions such as the China Pavilion, Saudi Arabia Pavilion, Germany Pavilion, France Pavilion, Czech Republic Pavilion, Spain Pavilion, etc., we expect ourselves to be much relaxed this time. We have planned to watch the shows in the Expo Culture Center, to stroll in the parks, and to dine in the famous restaurants, etc. Hopefully, there is no need for us to join the queues this time. I am cheerful. 

We have checked the weather in Shanghai. It will be sunny with 30 degrees Celsius tomorrow Monday. There will be heavy rain on Tuesday. Both Wednesday and Thursday will be sunny with very hot temperature about 31 degrees.

Source of Energy - The Heart of the Germany Pavilion

Source of Energy

Among the various exhibitions in the Germany Pavilion at Expo 2010, we appreciate the "Source of Energy" the most. This is the highlight of the Germany Pavilion. The show is very impressive. It is really a fantastic and marvelous journey.

After we had finished our tours moving around from one section to another section of exhibition in the Germany Pavilion, we subsequently came to the last part of the exhibitions. Going down stair and through a door, we got into a large hall where was rather dark. We then found ourselves standing among crowds of people who were spreading around a large circular hollow space. Seeing through a metal-wire barrier, we spotted a giant sphere hanging in the air at the center of the hall. When the show started with glimpse of lights on the metal sphere, we recognized that people were standing around the sphere in different levels. There were around several hundreds of people at a time watching the ten-minute show performed by a 2,000kg metal sphere. We later on learned that the sphere was 3 meters in diameter and covered with hundred thousands of LEDs.

Watching the Source of Energy

Two narrators came into the hall to lead the show. A young German man named as Jens and a Chinese girl Yan Yan started the introduction with dialogues. Yan Yan invited one of the volunteer visitors to blow on her microphone. We were surprised to see the sphere respond to the blow and start moving. It looked like that the movement of the sphere was pushed by the blow. Everybody cheered up and shouted. Jens encouraged us to shout loudly. Our noises made the sphere swing like a hanging pendulum. Yan Yan divided us into two groups. The group with louder noises made the sphere swing more to the opposite side. The louder we could shout together, the greater gradient the sphere would swing and turn. The colorful image patterns on the surface of the sphere kept changing, twinkling and sparkling. This had lightened up the entire hall. As we shouted to a greater level, the sphere revolved faster and the lights turned brighter than before. This cheered us up and let us feel the power of co-operations in the delivery of energy to our city.

Source of Energy performance in the German Pavilion

Germany Pavilion at Expo 2010

Germany Pavilion

The Germany Pavilion is one of the popular tourist attraction spots in Shanghai Expo 2010. Occupying a large area measuring around 6,000 square meters, the pavilion architecture is perceived to be in a combination of three multi-dimensional polygons. The relatively large tops and small feet of the polygons provide visitors with shelter protection from rains and sunshine. Looking from another angle, the polygonal structures appear to have assembled into a sculpture building with partial outdoor decks underneath. The silver outer layer of the building gives itself a robotic-feel character. Indeed, it  is  a membrane type building material. The interior of the building  is very large. It consists of a number of corridor-shape exhibition halls and a round-shape performance hall.

Open area exhibition

The Germany Pavilion is named as "balancity" which comes from the words "balance" and "city". The theme of the balancity aims to emphasize the importance of the balance between urbanity and nature, modernization and preservation, innovation and tradition, community and individual development, work and recreation, and also globalization and nationality. On admissions, visitors receive a souvenir  paper wind-wheel on which there is a pattern of the pavilion logo symbolizing the polygonal shape of the pavilion with German flag colors in black, red, and yellow.

Germany scenery as the background

There are in total 13 sections in the exhibition. The first two parts under an open area demonstrate the natural landscape and scenic suburban areas of Germany respectively. The third part of the exhibition lets visitors experience a dynamic tunnel while standing on a moving conveyor belt. In the fourth section, visitors stepped onto the underwater escalator. Getting to the top of the escalator, visitor will see the harbor view of Hamburg, in a harmony of renewal and preservation of buildings. The planning office in the fifth section displays the constructions of future cities. The exhibition of energy balance shows how solar roofs and a wood chip power plant generate more regenerated energy than houses consume in a year, and as a result surplus electricity is fed into the public power supply network to make good profits. The sixth section is the exhibition of intercultural gardens. These include school gardens and Germany allotment gardens, etc. Kids enjoy playing on a slide, while adults are fascinated with the interactive activities. The seven section is all about new inventions and news products made in Germany. The eighth part is the displays from innovative factories. In the ninth section, visitors view the parks of German cities by covering their heads with a bell-shape equipment in where 360 degree pictures are shown. The tenth part is a workshop of artworks. The eleventh section is a plot for art and cultural performance show. The twelfth part is the dialogue between China and Germany focusing on the improvement of city lives. The ultimate is a show of energy source.   

Expo Passport - The Best Selling Souvenir at Expo 2010

Stamping Expo passports at France Pavilion

The issue of Expo passports was originated in 1976 Montreal Expo of Canada. Expo passports were served as exposition admission tickets at that time and turned into popular souvenirs in later expositions. Since the opening of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, Expo passports have become the best selling souvenir and are always sold out quickly at the licensed stores inside the Expo park. Souvenir passports which carry the watermarks of different national pavilions on different pages are offered in four colors. Collecting stamps for the passport from visiting pavilions has added a bit of fun to the visits. Enthusiasm for the collection of pavilion stamps persists among visitors. The stamp serves as a proof of the pavilion visit. Most of the stamps are in unique beautiful design. To some visitors, the Expo passport serves as a gift to friends.

Souvenir Expo passport

The majority pavilions provide visitors with the stamping services on the pathway towards the exit. A few pavilions offer the services at the entrance hall. The France Pavilion, perhaps, is the only one giving out stamping services to the visitors in the last few minutes of their queue-up time for admissions (see attached photo 1). I quite like the idea. This makes use of our boring queue-up time. Some pavilions request the stamps to be affixed on the designated pages. For example, the stamp for the France Pavilion has to be put on page 14 which posses a watermark of the image of its pavilion (see attached 2). For long time, we were not aware of the watermarks printed on the passport pages. Until one day, my eyes were caught by the watermark of the "Saudi Arabia Moon Boat" on page 35. It was good that the staff of the Saudi Arabia Pavilion had avoided putting the stamp on its watermark (see attached photo 3).

On our first day of the Shanghai Expo tour in May 2010, we entered the site at Puxi. As there were fewer souvenir shops in Puxi than Pudong and our first priority was going to get the City Name Card, we failed to purchase the passport. On the second day, we got it right after our admission to Pudong. We purchased one for each of us. My husband had his passport stamped while I kept my passport blank. Although we understood that a passport with a full collection of stamps could be bid for a few hundred to a few thousand RMB dollars, we were not too fancy about the stamp collection. I wonder who will be so silly to spend a few thousand RMB dollars to purchase a stamped passport souvenir.

Watermarks of different national pavilions

Regarding the stamp collection, I read some negative reports on the internet. An article mentioned that some visitors were holding a few hundred passports for stamping, and some left the pavilions without any touring right after they had obtained the stamps. In our experiences, we did not see these pictures. Such rumors are questionable. In the reality, all visitors have to do their stamping quickly because there is always a long queue moving behind you.  It is not feasible for a person to take up some time to stamp a few dozens passports. The long queue will certainly push him/ her go. For the popular pavilions, people need to line up for hours to reach the stamping counter. Will they solely come for the stamps but not the touring after queuing for a few hours? For the pavilions which are lack of attractions, it is reasonable that people take a quick glance and turn to other pavilions. If people are fancy in the collection of stamps, they can get many stamps from the Africa Pavilion. There are 42 countries and one organization in the Africa Pavilion. Similarly, visitors can obtain a number of stamps from the Urban Best Practices Area in Puxi. I saw some people ask to have the stamps chopped on their Expo maps because they didn't have any passports. This worked.

A new version of Expo passports was released on June 22, 2010. Anti-counterfeiting technologies have been added to the passports. There are not any more pavilion background patterns on the pages or the page number footnote. The supply of the Expo passport is now sufficient. If visitors still can't get a passport, they may try the souvenir shops with a low traffic volume. There is one at the basement level of the Expo Axis providing rich stock of souvenir passports. 

100,000 Visitors Had Benefited from the Fast Track System

Signboard explaining the fast track system

The Shanghai Expo authority yesterday announced that more than 100,000 visitors had benefited from the fast track system to obtain reservation tickets for the designed popular pavilions. During the process, visitors should firstly obtain a copy of the City Name Card. After the card has been stamped with 16 chops from the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) Cases (please refer to my blog dated June 12, 2010 for details), the visitor can exchange the card for a reservation ticket to one of the three popular pavilions - the China, Saudi Arabia, or Italy Pavilion. The Italy Pavilion started joining the system this month. In order to be able to get accessed to the Italy National Pavilion, one should go to the Cases of Venice, Bologna and the country's environment protection department to collect 6 UBPA stamps. There are limited editions of the cards. Every day the system offers 500 chances to the admission to the Italy Pavilion, 180 to the Saudi Arabia Pavilion, and 2,000 to the China Pavilion. Visitors who are interested in the Germany, Spain, and Czech Republic Pavilions, may go to the three countries' cases to collect a certain number of stamps. A notice is posted at the Information Counter for the explanation of the procedures (See attached photo). Once you have got the reservation ticket for the China Pavilion, you don't need to follow the time slot. It is quite free. The staff will only check the date. He/ she will let you go in even though the booking time has passed.

UBPA at Puxi section of Expo 2010

The fast track system has made the UBPA become popular. The number of attendances to the UBPA increases to almost 10 folds than that before the initiation of the system. The system has also generated more visitors to Puxi. A university teacher was very lucky to be the 100,000th visitor receiving the City Name Card. The luck had brought him a gift package including reservation tickets to the China, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, and Czech Republic Pavilions.

Besides the offers from the fast track system, one can get accessed to the designated pavilions if he or she holds a valid VIP card. Some foreigners said that they could skip the queue to enter their country's pavilions by showing their legal passports. For example, a visitor who is holding a valid French passport is allowed to get into the France Pavilion straight away. I, however, have no way to validate this information.

Pavilion of Public Participation at Expo 2010

Pavilion of Public Participation

The Pavilion of Public Participation is located at Zone B in Shanghai Expo 2010. Its theme is "Our Home". It highlights an idea that "Each Action You take Will change Our Life". By participating in an interactive program, visitors learn about the history and progress of Shanghai Expo before its opening to the public. The first part of the exhibition is named as "Visual Impressions" which brings up an Expo memory in Shanghai. A full record of the Expo 2010 is interpreted via photo exhibitions on a large screen. A great number of photographs are presented. Photo topics include the application, biding and preparation of the exposition as well as the construction of the Expo site. When a visitor is standing within a distant of 2 meters in front of the screen, an image bubble appears and magnify the photograph. If the visitor moves close to the screen, the bubble will sink to the bottom. When moving away from the screen, the bubble rises to the top. The bubble will follow the visitor's movement going from one screen to another. The second part of the exhibition is labeled as "Experience". Visitors can take part in an interactive activity to design an ideal city by selecting images from the touch screen monitor on a machine. Visitors will experience hosting an exhibition and picture the future.

Inside Pavilion of Public Participation

We spent less than 5 minutes on the queue to get into the Pavilion of Public Participation. As the pavilion was not large, visitors finished their touring fast. And only a few of them were interested in the activity participation. We finished our tour in the Pavilion of Public Participation within 10 minutes' time. There were not much to see.