What have we learned from the Germany Pavilion?

Showcases for new inventions and new products have long been the main focus of world expositions. In the Germany Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, there is a section showing the advanced technologies of the latest German products. Exhibitions include both traditional visual displays and interactive programs. Numerous products are displayed. These include environmental friendly vehicles with fuel cells in battery electric drive, water-saving shower heads, halogen light sources, professional audio equipment, compact video intercom systems, universal mobile phones, and ergonomically optimized aircraft tableware etc. Visitors could play around with the interactive programs such as simulation cooking through the touch screen of the German glass-ceramic cooktops. 

The following section displays numerous types of new materials which are of specific effects and benefits.  For example, there is a display of ecological thermal insulation building material. There are High-Tech polycarbonate sheets suitable for a wide range of applications, such as roof tops, facade glazing, thermal protection for machines, and lighting strips. These sheets are superior to other plastic sheets. There are T shirts manufactured from biological recycle materials. They are safe  and will be decomposed after a certain period.

Interactive programs in Germany Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai

Iceland Pavilion at Expo 2010 - Small is Beautiful

Iceland Pavilion

Iceland Pavilion is one of my favorite programs in Shanghai Expo 2010. It has a comparatively shorter waiting queue when comparing with most popular pavilions. Iceland was seriously affected by the global financial crisis in 2008, and it was threatened by a volcano eruption early this year. The Iceland Pavilion has a mediocre outlook. Therefore, people don't expect that the Icelandic government puts much resources in the current world exposition. In fact, the financial cost is partially supported by business companies. The Expo is a bridge for the Icelandic business entities to land China. The Iceland Pavilion is small but beautiful in the presentation. All my friends who have been there also highly praise it. When entering the pavilion, we immediately developed an Icelandic feel because the hall was very cold. This was a very pleasant refreshing sensation after waiting for half an hour in the very hot weather at the pavilion entrance. With limited resources, the pavilion provides visitors with the best entertaining program.

There is solely a cubic hall inside the pavilion, and there are no decorations at all. All around the four sides of the hall are white screens. In a small area, the pavilion provides visitors with a stunning effect by making movie projections on the four sides as well as the ceiling of the hall. The movie mainly presents the Icelandic natural landscapes and disturbances including glaciers, waterfalls, oceans, geysers, and volcanic eruptions and explosions. When the waterfall image was projecting on the ceiling of the theater hall, we developed an on-site feel that the waterfall ran over our heads. When there were millions of fishes swimming over us, we had an illusion that we were under the deep sea. The amazing visual effect was reflected by the bizarre applause from the audience. 

The Iceland Pavilion is always full of visitors. The monthly number of visitors to the Iceland Pavilion at Expo Shanghai on June 1, 2010 has exceeded the total population of the Icelandic nation.

An amazing visual effect is developed when the movie is also projecting on the ceiling of the theater hall.

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.