My long train ride came to an end at Shanghai South station, ironically the very station I first got misdirected to when I was trying to leave the city. I joked to myself that Namba Woman would be on the platform waiting for me. It was odd returning to this place which now had a bit of familiarity — I whipped out my old transit smart card and transferred onto the metro system with confidence.
I booked a cheap motel in the new outskirts of town near the airport, a few blocks from the metro line so as to make my departure as effortless as possible. The place was quite new and clean and across from a shopping area that just opened. One thing that is remarkable in China is that they have no inhibitions when it comes to contemporary architecture. Some of the buildings are bold statements and experimental, others are weird imitations or combinations of historic styles. The mix of shapes, textures and patterns can be raucous but somewhat fitting to the frantic pace of life here.
I made sure I had a buffer day in Shanghai just in case something went awry. Since everything was OK, it was a chance to visit Expo 2010 again and see the parts of the vast site that I missed the first time around. I got off to a relaxed start after breakfast and set off for a different gate this time. I went to a few more theme pavilions and was wowed by some of the state-of-the-art projection systems that they used.
Some of it was like walking into a Sci-Fi movie, and some futuristic products were on display like e-paper, a flexible, rollable screen.
I visited a relatively calm corner of the fair where different cities offered case studies in making their urban communities more sustainable. Everything was presented with rose coloured glasses, but it is nice to get a shot of optimism sometimes.
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| Interesting concept: with the development of ultra-capacity batteries, what if all our electric cars became storage units for energy, drawing electricity during periods of low demand, then releasing it back to the grid when demand is high, if the car is not in use. Your car could end up being the auxiliary battery for your house. |
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| Green roofs were big at the fair. |
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| The hard sell on softwood |
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| Great Danes on bikes |
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| This building had a green wall and a waterfall to control its temperature |
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| The lineups were way too long for me to go into the GM pavilion and its take on the future of personal transportation |
At dusk the site takes on another personality as buildings become liquid with light:
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