Becky Goes to China

(Photos added 5/30/10)

If you’re going to the World Expo in Shanghai, be prepared to stand in line. The line for the China Pavilion is 5-6 hours long. Our host at the Consulate yesterday, Keenton Chiang, told us we shouldn’t bother to try getting in since it was impossible to do without a reservation, which we did not have. The line for Saudi Arabia was 9 hours long. These are lines that make a 45 minute wait for the Jungle Cruise at DisneyWorld seem like a piece of cake. Upon arriving and viewing the chaos just to get in the gate, I turned to Kelly and asked her, “What time is the 3 o’clock parade?” (She’s from Florida and is a fellow WDW alum. It’s an inside joke amongst all the cast members.)

That said, aside from the queues to get inside, we didn’t stand in a single line.

A couple days ago, one of our Qatari boys (we have two in our group) said, “Let me make a few phone calls and see if we can get VIP access to Qatar.” So he did, and sure enough when we arrived today, when we showed up at the Qatar Pavilion, we were treated like rock stars.

This is Ibrahim, pointing to a building in the mural. It’s his uncle’s hotel. That he owns. (It’s the blue building peeking out from behind the white pyramid-like at the far right.)

The pavilion manager came out to meet us, ushered us in past the line waiting to get in and into the VIP suite where we were served Qatari coffee (or tea, maybe, I just know I really didn’t like it) on soft sofas in a room overlooking the pavilion floor. Then he personally led us through the exhibit. When it came to the craft demonstrations, he let us inside the roped-off areas. The ladies were treated to henna tattooes, also behind the ropes.

A Qatari photographer followed us the entire way. We were told that the photos would be posted on the pavilion’s website and possibly published in the newspaper in Qatar. (I don’t see the photos posted as of this moment.) They took down all of our names and some info about our group, then lined us up for a group photo before sending us off with Qatari swag bags filled with mugs, t-shirts, umbrellas and random things.

The Qatari boys’ contact also told us that he could get us VIP access to 10-15 other pavilions, so what would we like to see? We ended up getting into several pavilions on account of the Qatari connection:

United Arab Emirates – skipped to the front of the line

Oman – skipped to the front, VIP lounge with Omani coffee and awesome date rolls, and another swag bag

China – were “accidentally” let into the reservations-only line (eat your heart out, Mr. Chiang!)

Saudi Arabia – skipped to the front, more paparazzi photos, and received apologies because if we’d come earlier in the day they would have let us into their VIP suite as well but were too busy by the time we arrived

We also visited Afghanistan, Bahrain and North Korea, none of which had lines. The North Korean pavilion was so incredibly lame it was actually kinda funny, especially with the slogan “Paradise for People” branded across the top of one wall.

All told, by Kelsey’s reckoning, it took us just 6 hours to see what people without VIP connections would have seen with 21 hours of waiting, and got into both of the “holy grail” pavilions. I have some new-found love for Qatar and our Qatari boys.

This is Kelsey.

Once the sun set, the group split up. Some wanted to explore the industry pavilions on the other side of the river while the rest of us were tired from being on our feet in the sun all day and wanted to just go home. I was part of the latter group that headed to the subway. The subway was only remarkable for one reason: the fistfight that broke out right in front of us. We don’t know what started it, but it got really interesting when one of the guys involved clocked a security guard right in the face. He ran off at the next stop, but jumped back on when he realized his girlfriend was still on the train. She was busy distracting the security guard so he could get away, but he came back for her. More fighting, and some super-official looking security with hand radios dragged the entire lot off the train at the next stop after that.

Alrighty…  I just noticed that it is midnight here, so I’m off to bed. I’ll try to get the photos up tomorrow to go with the stories.