Into the Expo

Its taken long enough, I know, but at last I bring you the expo post. I finally went to the Expo 2010 in Shanghai this week, and here I’ll share with you my impressions of the site and the event.

Some of you reading this definitely know of the expo, a few might actually know what it really is, and maybe one or two of you have actually been there. For pretty much everyone else, here’s some background information:

Also known as “World’s Fair”, these expos have their roots in the London Great Exhibition of 1851.

Everyone Loves a Model

Or at least, everyone in China loves BEING a model.

In truth, I should have quite a few more pictures to support this story, but I've since discovered that a good number of the ones that were relevant were way too washed out; also, if anyone can tip me on how to embed video into these blog posts, I can put up a couple of those also.

Anyway, so, roaming around Shanghai, if you go to any of the "nice" parts of the city, you have a better chance than you could ever expect of stumbling across a modeling photo shoot. Recently, a good friend of mine from San Diego, a guy named Nathan, came to visit for two weeks, and despite the fact that I've already been experiencing this phenomenon for about a full year, it was nevertheless amazing just how many models we came across. Almost every day, we saw at least one photo shoot.

Not Exactly Chingrish, but...

So, here's another simple picture story.

China is also a land of many stores that feature English names, for reasons that escape any notion of logic. I find them in places where the number of English-speaking Chinese people is almost nil, but even in a place like Shanghai, there aren't that many. Nevertheless, they probably think it helps branding somehow, making it seem classier or more international. Whatever.A lot of the time it just ends up sounding weird. On with the pictures!

Finally, an episode of Chingrish

This has been a long time coming. It won't be the last entry I do about funny signs in Asia, that's for sure. Most everyone knows, or at least has heard of, the suspicious translations to be found in Asia, so here I am to show you some of the gems I've come across!

A New Era Continued (featuring the impossible)

As I'm sure many of you know, China is a place of remarkably fast-paced progress and development. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the place was close to a barren wasteland a few decades ago. Double digit growth, toppling Japan for #2 GDP in the world, blah blah blah.

The truly important story here is that thanks to their disregard for reality, China can pull off the impossible. You know the old Douglas Adam adage about throwing yourself at the ground and missing? Think along those lines. If you don't know something can't happen, then who says it won't?

A New Era Continued (featuring bears)

So, I'm going for a different feel for a bit.

I've still got some long form stories within me to tell, but those are on hold. In fact, I'm working on writing them also, but I'm writing various things.

For the time being, I'm going to start doing roughly a post every day about some smaller topics, usually involving one picture and a small story. I know this is actually pretty typical of blogging for most people, but it runs against mostly what I've done so far, so to me this is micro-posting.