Tag: Expo2010

  • I Hate Crowds: Travelling in China During National Holidays

      I really do hate crowds. Crowds make me want to hit people or queue jump just to escape from the queue (because in China, some queues are so vast and switchbacky that to get out you have to go forward). I don’t like noise. I really like quiet, empty places. People en masse exhaust…

  • Despo(t) 2010: Stan!

    Despo(t) 2010: Stan!

    Also in this series: Death By Exposure and Despo(t) 2010: The Axis of Awesome     In our quest to avoid the crowded pavilions at Shanghai Expo 2010, we embarked on an intensive one-day project to visit as many maligned countries as possible.  We visited the Axis of Evil and a few non-affiliated-but-still-iffy countries. We…

  • Shanghai Despo(t) 2010- The Axis of Awesome Pavilions

    Shanghai Despo(t) 2010- The Axis of Awesome Pavilions

    Also in this series: Death By Exposure and Stan!     We went back to Expo on Saturday for a stubborn second round of heat stroke and agoraphobia. The first time we went, which was just last Tuesday on the second day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, we waited two hours in an increasingly…

  • Death by Exposure: Expo 2010, Part 1

    Death by Exposure: Expo 2010, Part 1

      Also in this series: Despot 2010: Axis of Awesome and Stan!   After we spent the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival being slothful, alternating dragging our bodies out for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, and lying dugong-like on the sofa, reading and drinking coffee, we decided to be ambitious for the second…

  • (101 Things About Shanghai) Laneways and Alleys, oh my

    Shanghai’s got a lot of alleyways. I’m a huge fan of them, perhaps as a human level antidote to the carelessly changing skyscraper skyline of this city. They like things to be new, big and shiny here.  I prefer smaller things in my line of sight. Some alleys are in the layouts for 1930s lane…

  • (101 Things About Shanghai) Trippy but Pointless Public Art

    In the wilds of Pudong, deep down in Zhang Jiang Gaoke where I used to catch the bus to work in Lingang (don’t even ask how far away that was) there is a giant Delete button standing on one of it’s corners at the edge of a park. A Delete button, like the kind you…

  • (101 Things About Shanghai) Street Detailing

      This morning as I walked to work, a Shanghai municipal worker was crouched down on her haunches, polishing a garbage bin. She had already carefully washed it down and was now rubbing shine into the metal containers with a suede cloth. It sparkled.  The garbage can sparkled. Near her, another municipal worker was meticulously…