Shanghai Expo with Coca-Cola – Day 3 of 4 (noon)

After exploring the Puxi area in the morning, we headed to Pudong during noon. Pudong is where all the country pavilions are located and where all the crowd is headed.

It is impossible to tour the entire Shanghai Expo area in a day – there are over 240 pavilions spread over 4 zones, separated by the Huangpu River.

For tips on exploring the Expo if you are starved for time, you can read this article I wrote for my paper on 17 May 2010.

Some of the popular pavilions like China, USA and Japan takes hours to queue, just to get in. We figured we were better off marveling the varied architecture of the various pavilions from the outside, soaking in the expo atmosphere and only visiting those pavilions which look more interesting, with a manageable queue.

In this way, we were able to see practically all the pavilions from the outside and still enjoyed touring a select few on the inside.

The expo is great for shopping and food too, beyond pavilion hopping. Cuisines from around the world are available at the various country pavilions and there are over 100 restaurants distributed throughout the zones. Likewise for souvenir hunters, literally, the world is your market with each country pavilion offering unique local delights and exclusive expo mechandises.

Spain pavilion which resembles a giant wicker basket

The Spain pavilion from another angle

Estonia - the first pavilion we visited

There's nothing but giant pigs of different colours in the Estonia pavilion

More pigs - I kid you not

Latvia pavilion which was still incomplete

You can see part of the bare wall in this picture

We tried to climb up the Latvia pavilion, but were chased down by staff

View of the Expo area atop the Latvia pavilion

Exterior of the Finnish pavilion

Named Kirnu, the FInnish pavilion is built to resemble a small island surrounded by a mirror of water - it's one of my favourite pavilion

Finnish girl who gave an introduction to Finland in halting Mandarin

One of the ushers in the Finnish pavilion

Finnish musicians with two random Chinese photo hunters

Inside the Finland pavilion:

Some interactive installation

Another video piece where you can leave your image behind

Made in Finland products - Nokia is there of course

More Finnish products

Iceland pavilion

Poland pavilion

Sweden pavilion

Belgium-EU pavilion

Denmark pavilion

Another view of the Denmark pavilion

France pavilion

Portugal pavilion

Hungary pavilion

Czech Republic pavilion

Ukraine pavilion

Slovakia pavilion

Germany pavilion

The Netherland pavilion

The much praised, beautiful UK pavilion - The Seed Cathedral, which is covered by 60,000 crystalline spines tiat are tipped with tiny lights

June and I, pretending to drive one of the Expo cars

Real Expo staff driving the same car

There are lots of giant maps like this for navigation

USA pavilion which had a long queue despite the unimpressive exterior

The long queue deterred us from going in

The two hours marker for the USA queue

USA gift shop - the product range was very yawn and drab

The USA pavilion enterprise section which you can enter without queuing

A lot of Chinese vied to pose here for photos

Nothing but corporate videos... no wonder don't need to queue

The Canadian pavilion

Small kid in front of us in the queue. We took about half an hour to get in.

Signature maple leave

Inside the Canada pavilion:

Inside the Canadian pavilion

The interior is designed by Cirque du Soleil - hence the wavy forms

Interactive "pool" which will ripple with the wind chimes

Cycling installation in the Canadian pavilion

The animation sequence the cyclists will see

I love this giant screen which showcases many picturesque scenes in Canada

Panaromic scene of a fish market in Canada

Canada street scene

Some Canadian artwork

You can buy maple syrup at the gift shop

Canadian soft serve

Cuba pavilion

Brazil pavilion

Wider view of the Brazilian pavilion

Noticed a lot of the Chinese have these Expo "passports" where they can get a chop at each of the country pavilion they visited - a lot of pushing and shoving occurred because of this

Noticed a lot of the Chinese have these Expo "passports" where they can get a chop at each of the country pavilion visited - a lot of pushing occurred because of this

Inside the Brazil pavilion:

A video installation inside the Brazil pavilion which made me really giddy

Exterior view of the video installation

As expected, there were lots of footballs

Brazil gift shop

Columbia pavilion

Columbia pavilion gift shop - they ran out of coffee!

I am not joking - this is the coffee kiosk which ran out of coffee

Argentine pavilion

One of the smaller shared pavilions - Albania

San Marino - which claims to be the smallest and oldest republic in the world

Cyprus - another shared pavilion

This is about all there is inside the Cyprus pavilion

Greek pavilion

Belarus pavilion

A giant video installation was spotted inside the Belarus pavilion

South Africa pavilion - there's a giant Nelson Mandela mural on one side

Quote from Nelson Mandela

Tunisia pavilion

Libya pavilion

Egypt pavilion

Somehow the pavilion felt very "un-Egypt"

Monaco pavilion

For some reason, we chose to have lunch here - there are many such identical restaurant buildings in the Expo area serving a variety of world cuisines

Inside the restaurant

My la mien lunch

After lunch, we headed to a Coca-Cola event designated area for their Founder’s Day Parade to celebrate Coca-Cola’s 124th birthday.

There were already a large crowd gathered when we arrived. Luckily, we had VIP passes and I was able to position myself close to the front.

The “Brrr-man”, Baruti, was there to warm up the crowd together with some Chinese dancers and acrobatic performers.

The parade started shortly after. It was a visual feast, much like a mini World-themed version of the Chingay Parade in Singapore. Check out the event photos and videos below.

Baruti singing Happy “Brrr-day” to Coca-Cola:

A large crowd was already gathered when we arrived

Baruti challenging the crowd to perform his signature "Brrr"

To the tune of K'naan's Wavin Flags

Coca-cola flags

The full video recording of the Coca-Cola Founder’s Day Parade:

Me at the front of the parade

Cheery ladies leading the parade

Happy expression

Chinese Uncle Tom

I spot the Expo logo

Look at the size of her blouse!

Blue elephant cart

Smile and wave

Candy castle

All dolled up

Hail the fat king

Hawaiian volcanoes

Our Japanese friend getting interviewed after the parade

That ended our noon activities at the Expo. We will be doing more pavilion-hopping in the evening, including visiting the Singapore Pavilion and checking out the magnificent architecture of the China Pavilion. Stay tuned to my next post on all these and the star-studded Coca-Cola Celebration Concert.