Enjoying the Leisure of Shanghai Expo 2010 without Any Crowds

A garden in UBPA

While hundreds of thousands of people were flooding into the Pudong region where national pavilions of Asia, Middle East, and Europe are located, we explored the peaceful side of the Shanghai World Exposition across the Huangpu River in the Puxi area. And we had achieved enjoying the leisure of the Expo 2010 without any crowds in the Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA). The UBPA is an exhibition district for representative cities around the world to showcase their innovative practices in urbanization. The UBPA also acts as a platform to connect cities in sharing their experiences in urban construction and development. Various representative cases are shown via exhibitions, presentations, seminars, workshops, networks, display boards, events, and performances. Showcase portfolios demonstrate a remarkable range of implementations and solutions to improve the quality of city life. Sample displays include low-carbon city, eco-housing, eco-art, sustainable urbanization, utilization of culture heritage, and technological innovations in built environment, etc. Apparently, UBPA is a good place for learning rather than entertainment.

Eco Housing

The UBPA includes a number of case pavilions and four Cases Joint Pavilions. Please refer to the page end of the Site Maps and Pavilions to view a full list of the presenting city cases from various geographical regions. In the northern part of the UBPA, built cases are demonstrated in simulated urban blocks. There are Case Pavilions of Alsace, Chengdu, Hamburg, London, Macau, Madrid, Makkah, Ningbo, Odense, Rhone-Alpes, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Xian. All of these case pavilions are close to each other. Therefore, there is no need for visitors to walk a long distance under the strong sunshine from one pavilion to another. In the central and southern part of the UBPA, several presenting cases are sharing under a large Cases Joint Pavilion. The temperature of Shanghai was as high as 35 degree Celsius at the time of our visit. Fortunately, we escaped from the hot weather by staying indoors to see a great variety of exhibitions in the UBPA.

London low-carbon case pavilion

We enjoyed very much our touring in the UBPA. There were no crowds, and the environment was naturally refreshing. We went straight into almost every pavilion without lining up for admission. When we were seeing a queue of more than 15 people, we returned later to achieve a non-waiting admission. Comparing with our first visit experience to the UBPA in May, there were comparatively more people now in July. It is perhaps due to the fact that more people learn about the fast track system requirement in the visits of the UBPA.

We spent a whole day in the UBPA but still had not yet finished seeing the exhibitions in details. There were lots of information to feed our curious mind. Anyway, I had taken photographs on the display board information and would like to learn about them in the later days. Apart from the knowledge acquisition, we also enjoyed the delicious food in the UBPA. There are many restaurants serving gourmet food from various countries. The restaurants were not crowded at all. We took a Spanish dinner at the Madrid Case Pavilion. The food was absolutely gorgeous. After the dinner, we watched the spectacular lighting show which was run by the Rhone-Alpes Lighting Pavilion. And we watched the entertainment show run by the Bremen Town Musicians. What a wonderful relaxing time we had! If possible, we would like to visit the UBPA again. The UBPA is worth visiting. 

UBPA in the evening
 

Bremen Town Musicians Night Show at the UBPA

 

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.

Optimal Choice of Entrance Gate to the Expo Site

Reservation spot at Zone E Puxi

There are in total 13 entrances/ exits for the Expo site. Many people are making searches for the optimal choice of the entrance to the Expo site. That entirely depends on the zone area where you would like to pay a visit to. As the Expo site is extremely large, it is not possible for you to tour all 5 zones in a day's visit. More than 70% of the site area is in Pudong where most people are interested in. Fewer visitors are found in Puxi because there are fewer attractions. 

The China Pavilion remains to be the most popular visiting point in Expo 2010. Gate 5 (Gaoke Road West) is comparatively close to the China Pavilion. It is also not too far a distance if you walk along the Expo Boulevard from Gate 6 (Shangnan Road) to the China Pavilion. Many visitors rushed to the China Pavilion from Gate 5 in the very early morning with an eager for the visit. However, they couldn't achieve the visit without a reservation ticket. Therefore, it is wise to reach the reservation spot to obtain a ticket first. There is not any reservation machine at the China Pavilion. All reservation spots are far away from the China Pavilion. I am not quite sure about the reservation spots in the Pudong section. But I know that there is a reservation spot at Zone E of Puxi. This is close to Gate 3 (Bansongyuan Road), but Gate 3 is not directly connected to any metro line. If you go by subway, you may consider going through Gate 1 at Zone D and take a free shuttle bus to reach the reservation spot in Zone E. Puxi is less crowded with people. 

Since the opening of the Expo, the greatest number of admissions has been from Gate 8 (Houtan Gate) at Zone C. This is the zone where the American, European, and African Pavilions are sited. This area is always crowded with people. There are 3 shuttle bus routes staring from Gate 8 to reach various pavilions. The Shibo Avenue bus route is the best choice if you would like to go to the UK, France, Switzerland, and Spain Pavilions. It is also not too far away to walk from Gate 8 to the USA Pavilion. Based on the official statistics, Gate 8 received 80,000 visitors on June 13, 2010. On the same day, Gate 7 (Changquing Road) received 65,000 visitors. The other 3 gates at Pudong are also crowded.

Instead of waiting long at the gates in the Pudong Section, you may consider entering the Expo site from Gate 1 at Puxi and take the subway Metro Line 13 (Lupu Bridge) to Pudong. After getting out from the Shibo Avenue Metro Station, you can make an easy access to the Australia, Finland, or Denmark Pavilion. It may be more fast than you enter from the gates at the Pudong section.