2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China

When most of us think of the World's Fair, we vaguely remember some story about that's where futuristic technologies --like elevators, or steel girding for skyscrapers -- made their debue, sometimes as fantasies ahead of finding practical applications. But the modern World Expo is a toy box of temporary architecture, a showcase for tourism, history, culture, and some innovations. (Click here for 39 photos from the Expo)



And so, while most of the Western world is hardly noticing, there on the banks of the Huang Pu River in Shanghai is a campus of dozens and dozens of exposition halls of varying sizes, being viewed by thousands of visitors every day for 5 months this year. The theme, related to creating sustainable cities, was ignored by many pavilions, turning them into tourist ads.



This was my only free weekend, and we wore our feet out walking through the areas. The lines were longest at the halls for the countries that put the most into their displays -- Germany, China, UK, US, even Kazakhstan had a long wait -- so we chose some of the less popular but still intriguing halls (and they were all air conditioned anyway): DPR Korea (North), Iran, Coca-Cola, Vietnam, Italy, and the hall of African countries. After October, all but the largest display halls will be dismantled.

As if the Expo wasn't a big enough draw, behold Shanghai, the concrete-glass-steel megacity that is a showcase of its own, showing off China's new glitz, less surprising though still outshining ancient Beijing. After the long day wandering the exhibition grounds, we recovered at the bar on the 87th floor of a skyscraper. (Click here for 27 photos of Shanghai)



Amazingly, we could see only city in all directions -- you can't see to the edge of town from that height--partly because it's so far away, and partly from the haze. Back on the ground the next day, we explored some low-level two-story neighborhoods that felt a little more familiar, spared the wrecking ball by their gentrification.