World Expo, Taiwan and China Pavilions
Sat, Jun. 19th, 2010 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI am now in Shanghai, although only for a day or so... Going to Korea tomorrow and starting summer school on Monday, whoo!
We went to see some of the World Expo today, although just the Taiwan and China Pavilions. It is HUGE. HUGE. I am always startled by how large China is, since I associate East Asia with small, crowded cities (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, etc.), but they have so much space here! The lines are not as terrible as I thought—bathroom lines were mostly fine and also the bathrooms had toilet paper thank goodness—but it is incredibly hot and humid. They have little machines around spraying mists of water everywhere and vendors with little ice cream carts, and everyone stands around with fans.
The >a href="http://www.expo2010taiwan.com/EN/index.aspx">Taiwan Pavilion is relatively small but nice. The main part is shaped like a lantern, one of the paper ones you light a candle under so that the flame heats the air and it floats away. (They are the ones used in Red Cliff by Zhuge Liang/Kong Ming and are called Kong Ming den for him!) You first enter the sphere in the middle, which is a giant theater playing a four-minute movie. It's rather like IMAX, I suppose, except it goes behind you and under you as well, and there are somewhat hokey effects like water spray and rain and wind that match the movie. The movie itself is mostly just of CG Taiwan scenery and animals (I had no idea Taiwan had dolphins!), and the parts that entertained me the most was when it "rained" and therefore cooled us down, or when we flew over Taipei and I tried to pick out buildings I recognized.
Then you proceed out of the theater to below the giant globe, which is lit by who knows how many LEDs. Apparently it's quite gorgeous at night. There are little stands below where you can "light" your own lantern by selecting one of many phrases, and you see a lantern with your selected phrase flying up the LED globe. After that, there's a bamboo room underneath where you go to have a cup of Taiwan-grown tea and listen to someone playing music on that stringed instrument where you hit the strings with little mallets (I don't know what it's called in Chinese or English). The entire room is covered with bamboo strips woven together in a not-quite-haphazard manner, and small lights shine through the cracks in the bamboo. I read somewhere that it's meant to simulate neighbors gathering together under trees after a hard day's work to gossip and listen to music and share tea. There's also a woman there who won a tea ceremony contest demo-ing how to brew the tea. You get to keep the little teacup you drink from, and they hand out a gift bag as you leave, which contains wet wipes (useful) and instant noodles (hee!).
They also limit the number of people going in because it's so small, so it was a much quieter experience, and rather calming.
The China Pavilion, on the other hand, is a bit overwhelming. I like the idea of how the pavilion is both modern and echoes traditional Chinese architecture, and I especially like the logo and how it echoes both the structure of the building while also being the character "華 (hua)" ("Chinese"). The snob in me notes that they used the traditional character for the logo instead of the simplified, haha.
The theme is apparently Chinese cities, although if you asked me after going, I couldn't have told you. The first section is the most impression, a long dark hall with an animated version of 清明上河圖, which becomes a more realistic and less painting-like scene of the river during the night. The hall also has small displays of Chinese art and artifacts, including quite a few from Xian that we saw placeholders of during our winter trip there! Given my predilection for museums, I unsurprisingly liked this part best. The next few halls have children's drawings; a city of the future (I think), complete with pod-like structure and weird LED stalks of light that may have been symbolizing rice stalks; a hall on energy conversation, which I found funny given the amount of energy and stuff going into the entire Expo; and a little tram ride that I think was supposed to talk about Chinese architecture past and present but was very short on information and very long on the fluff.
All in all, although the exterior of the building is extremely impressive, aside from the beginning exhibit, the rest feels very much like filler so that people would have a lot to look at inside the giant building. Taiwan's wasn't particularly grandiose, but it didn't feel overstuffed (also, free stuff!), whereas China's is just a bit much. Seriously... a mini tram ride inside the building!
After that, it was so hot that we decided we had had enough and went elsewhere for lunch. I think when I am back, I will go at night so as to see the giant LED sphere of the Taiwan pavilion at night, and so it will be cooler.
We went to see some of the World Expo today, although just the Taiwan and China Pavilions. It is HUGE. HUGE. I am always startled by how large China is, since I associate East Asia with small, crowded cities (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, etc.), but they have so much space here! The lines are not as terrible as I thought—bathroom lines were mostly fine and also the bathrooms had toilet paper thank goodness—but it is incredibly hot and humid. They have little machines around spraying mists of water everywhere and vendors with little ice cream carts, and everyone stands around with fans.
The >a href="http://www.expo2010taiwan.com/EN/index.aspx">Taiwan Pavilion is relatively small but nice. The main part is shaped like a lantern, one of the paper ones you light a candle under so that the flame heats the air and it floats away. (They are the ones used in Red Cliff by Zhuge Liang/Kong Ming and are called Kong Ming den for him!) You first enter the sphere in the middle, which is a giant theater playing a four-minute movie. It's rather like IMAX, I suppose, except it goes behind you and under you as well, and there are somewhat hokey effects like water spray and rain and wind that match the movie. The movie itself is mostly just of CG Taiwan scenery and animals (I had no idea Taiwan had dolphins!), and the parts that entertained me the most was when it "rained" and therefore cooled us down, or when we flew over Taipei and I tried to pick out buildings I recognized.
Then you proceed out of the theater to below the giant globe, which is lit by who knows how many LEDs. Apparently it's quite gorgeous at night. There are little stands below where you can "light" your own lantern by selecting one of many phrases, and you see a lantern with your selected phrase flying up the LED globe. After that, there's a bamboo room underneath where you go to have a cup of Taiwan-grown tea and listen to someone playing music on that stringed instrument where you hit the strings with little mallets (I don't know what it's called in Chinese or English). The entire room is covered with bamboo strips woven together in a not-quite-haphazard manner, and small lights shine through the cracks in the bamboo. I read somewhere that it's meant to simulate neighbors gathering together under trees after a hard day's work to gossip and listen to music and share tea. There's also a woman there who won a tea ceremony contest demo-ing how to brew the tea. You get to keep the little teacup you drink from, and they hand out a gift bag as you leave, which contains wet wipes (useful) and instant noodles (hee!).
They also limit the number of people going in because it's so small, so it was a much quieter experience, and rather calming.
The China Pavilion, on the other hand, is a bit overwhelming. I like the idea of how the pavilion is both modern and echoes traditional Chinese architecture, and I especially like the logo and how it echoes both the structure of the building while also being the character "華 (hua)" ("Chinese"). The snob in me notes that they used the traditional character for the logo instead of the simplified, haha.
The theme is apparently Chinese cities, although if you asked me after going, I couldn't have told you. The first section is the most impression, a long dark hall with an animated version of 清明上河圖, which becomes a more realistic and less painting-like scene of the river during the night. The hall also has small displays of Chinese art and artifacts, including quite a few from Xian that we saw placeholders of during our winter trip there! Given my predilection for museums, I unsurprisingly liked this part best. The next few halls have children's drawings; a city of the future (I think), complete with pod-like structure and weird LED stalks of light that may have been symbolizing rice stalks; a hall on energy conversation, which I found funny given the amount of energy and stuff going into the entire Expo; and a little tram ride that I think was supposed to talk about Chinese architecture past and present but was very short on information and very long on the fluff.
All in all, although the exterior of the building is extremely impressive, aside from the beginning exhibit, the rest feels very much like filler so that people would have a lot to look at inside the giant building. Taiwan's wasn't particularly grandiose, but it didn't feel overstuffed (also, free stuff!), whereas China's is just a bit much. Seriously... a mini tram ride inside the building!
After that, it was so hot that we decided we had had enough and went elsewhere for lunch. I think when I am back, I will go at night so as to see the giant LED sphere of the Taiwan pavilion at night, and so it will be cooler.
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(no subject)
Sat, Jun. 19th, 2010 08:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Jun. 19th, 2010 10:24 am (UTC)Gift bags w/instant noodles ftw, though, hehehe.
Have fun in Korea & with your summer school classes!
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Sat, Jun. 19th, 2010 02:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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