Before getting to Shanghai, the only two World Expos I knew about were the New York Worlds Fair and the Great Exhibition in London. That is, until I came to Shanghai and learned about the Shanghai Expo 2010. Unlike the Olympics, many of the sites built for Expo 2010 are still in use today. Most famous of these is the former China Pavilion, now the China Art Museum, although a good chunk of Pudong and many of the Metro lines were developed specifically for Expo 2010. However, some of the other pavilions built for the Expo 2010 are not currently in use and are just rotting away. Expo 2010 seems to have been a positive thing for Shanghai overall. It helped establish Shanghai as a world city and improved a good deal of the infrastructure in the city. I guess the real reason why the Shanghai Expo 2010 helped the city while many of these major world events end up only adding a massive pile of debt to a city is that Shanghai got some use out of the majority of the facilities built for the exhibition. The Shanghai Municipal Government and the Communist Party Committee knew that Shanghai needed more public spaces and more public transit if it was to become a real world city. One of the reasons I like Shanghai more than Beijing is that, because of Expo 2010, the Shanghai public transportation system is simply better than Beijing's. While Expo 2010 might not be as great as the City Government and the Shanghiese describe the Expo as, it did help the city of Shanghai develop.
2 Comments
Dad
5/4/2017 08:28:12 am
ECNU's Expo mascot looks like a cross between Gumby (after falling off of Pokey) and dental molar
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Sharon
5/4/2017 10:47:39 am
smurfs
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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