… which makes it so much easier to get a good photograph without anyone in the way 🙂

Shanghai Expo China Pavilion :: 12th November, 2010

With nobody around… it’s much more peaceful!

These guys are taking down large planks of wood, one piece at a time.

Between 1st May and 31st October, 2010, over 70 million visitors packed all parts of the Shanghai World Expo site.  Just 12 days since it’s closed and it’s looking baron and empty. Just for the workmen and women who are deconstructing the different pavilions, this is becoming quite an alien landscape!

This is elevated section you could walk along to see all the pavilions from above and easily get to the far end of Expo.  It now has that post apocalyptic feel to it.

As you can see they landed their vehicle to the left of the main entrance area.  Even though Expo closed on 31st October, they are still here with their spaceship.  I think they might have been clamped!

Around the entrance to the China Pavilion.

Seen outside the Swedish Pavilion.  Hopefully these guys are going to a good home (and they haven’t been kidnapped!).

Sold out!

Taking down Thailand: Now Expo has closed, the job of deconstructing the pavilions is well on the way. The theme of the Expo was Better City Better Life and in most cases the pavilions have been designed with some sort of recycling in mind.

It was blue and full of plants.  It’s still blue and the plant life is escaping!!

Shanghai Expo has closed.  Can you tell?  It’s a bit of a ghost town these days!

Looks like the aliens have landed and no one is hanging around!

I didn’t realise when it was open that there was so much green space around the Expo park.  This is a view of the main entrance and the Chinese Pavilion from near the riverside.

Down by the river at the Expo Park is some pretty big industrial equipment.

Everything is being taken apart and broken up.  These 4 guys decided to take a break by sitting on these chairs they just took outside.  It was quite funny watching as they started texting their friends and completely ignored each other.

Compared to everyone else in Expo after it has closed, this guy looked really out of place.

Afternoon nap before getting back to work on taking apart the Shanghai Expo park.

The Army have had people stationed all around Shanghai since the start of the Expo and their presence is still felt since Expo has ended. Along the Huangpu River there are officers stationed every few hundred metres. These guys are making sure no unauthorised persons enter the Expo site

Seen under the main overhead road at the Shanghai Expo site since it closed at the end of October.

Taking a photo call surrounded by rubbish… maybe she’s calling the bin men?

Seen outside the Spanish Pavilion. No entry anywhere now the Expo is closed.

Taking a quick break to pose for a photo.

Expo is closed and it’s now time to go around building walls.

“Here’s mine!”

Getting ready to build a wall around the Oman Pavilion.

That’s it.  That’s my tour of the Shanghai World Expo site on the 12th November 2010.

It was 12 days after the site had closed and the whole area certainly has a strange feel about it. During the time when Expo was open, over 70 million people passed through their doors to join queues of up to 5-6 hours. Now it’s a ghost town, the construction workers are taking down the buildings and the plans of recycling the pavilions are underway. The people of Expo are now the management guys and girls from each country tying up loose ends, the construction workers taking apart the pavilions and building walls and the army stopping unauthorized visitors (not unlike me) from wondering around and getting in the way.

I quite like this image as my final look at the Expo Site. I couldn’t find an easy way out and then I spotted another wall being built to stop people walking up to one of the entrances. They kindly let me exit through the hole they were using. It didn’t last long… a bit like Expo.