The World Expo (formerly called the World's Fair) really should have been called the China Expo. It was clearly all for the Chinese. Everything was written in Chinese, which would have been okay if it weren't the only language used. But when we went up to look at the menu for the Polish restaurant, I felt that it should have at the very least been written in Polish. I mean, it's the Polish pavilion for goodness sake. But I guess this would have just been a waste considering over 99% of the people at the Expo were Chinese.
It was poorly designed, more crowded than anywhere I have ever been in my life, and I honestly feel that Disney did it better with Epcot (and interestingly enough, my dad informed me later that in fact Disney played an important role in the 1963 New York World's Fair). Lines to get into popular pavilions (the set-up for the expo is that each country has a "pavilion," a building that they've designed, and inside it are little tidbits about the country) such as Saudi Arabia and Germany were five hours long. Five. And you only get to spend 5-10 minutes in each pavilion. We took the sane approach, deciding that seeing the outsides of the pavilions would do us just fine, and if there was no line we'd go inside. Which of course meant that the pavilions we saw were very, very lame. The Czech Republic, Cambodia (which was not as bad as the lack of line led us to believe, though it did have the distinct smell of urine), Libya, Cuba (which wins the award of being the lamest by far. There was literally nothing inside except a place for you to buy liquor and Cuban cigars). We got VIP passes to the US one, which felt nice since the regular line was three hours--and certainly not worth waiting for! The exhibition was...so American. First a video about how the children are our future and how their imaginations for cleaner energy will save the world (it was sponsored by BP, so what can you expect?), followed by a "4-D" video about a little girl trying to make a garden in the abandoned/trashed alleyway by her apartment, and how the (multi-cultural, of course) community one by one comes to help her, and as they do so they turn from black-and-white to color. I felt all warm and fuzzy after that one was over! (The highlight by far was the "4-D" part, which involved a thunderstorm where actual water rained down on the audience!). Oh America. It made my patriotic heart flutter.
The only legitimately good pavilion we got to see (by a fluke) was the French one. We ate dinner at the French restaurant--a three course meal on the roof of the pavilion that was very nice, though overpriced--and after having dined we were told that we could go right through to the French pavilion (which had also had a three-hour line). The exhibition included windows into their kitchen and cooking displays, large pictures of the Eiffel Tower and other French monuments, and they even flew over artworks: a Manet, a Gauguin, a Van Gogh, and a Roudin sculpture. All of it was tastefully arranged, and it was the only pavilion (that we saw) that I was impressed with.
All in all though, the Expo was--despite the propaganda produced by the Chinese media--a fail, in my opinion.
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