I previously visited Shanghai for the World's Fair or Expo 2010, and thought it would be cool to "re-visit" it on my latest trip, by way of the museum celebrating that Expo and all others. The museum is quite extensive, and has a compleat history of the World's Fair phenomenon, from the first one, the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, through the Brussels Expo, the first post-war World's Fair in 1958 (my personal favorite), and Seattle with its Space Needle in 1962:
Although the Crystal Palace burned down in 1937 (witnessed by my late friend Tim Layne as a mere lad), it started the association between the Fairs and architecture, from the Eiffel Tower to the Brussels Atomium, and the Trylon and Perisphere of New York 1939 (I'm not sure why these posters came off with the green tinge, so … sorry):
As you ascend the levels, you enter an area of artifacts and memorabilia:
I also attended the World's Fair 2012 in Yeosu, Korea (and blogged it here):
Natural History Museum
Shanghai has a number of great museums and the Natural History Museum is one of the best of its type I've seen:
Like any good Nat Hist museum, it has a wide selection of well-taxidermed creatures, and some imagined ones like the Maiasaurus ...
… as well as archeological specimens:
Finally, a couple of takes from the extensive human origins galleries, with a still from a very well-done video:
The Bund
The Bund is a remnant of the European colonialist exploitation of China after Britain won the Opium Wars in the 1860s, and TB and I made our way there on Saturday night for dinner.
We settled on this place, and had some fritters, okra, duck and pork ribs. Yummy, and not too expensive for Shanghai!
Stay tuned, and Happy Travels!
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