World Expo

Comments

• LoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537

  2010-07-26 15:06 edited 2010-07-26 15:06

  Taiwan pulled out the film festival portion due to Mainland China insisting that the films were all made in China. They may have completely pulled out. But if Japan is participating, robots should be quite worthwhile.
  
  ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
  Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?
  
  aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
• Humanoido Posts: 5,770

  2010-07-26 15:52 edited 2010-07-26 15:52

  That's really strange that China would insist that all films be made in China. It's going to severely limit the film industry in China until they change their policy, but, as you know, the thinking of Chinese is mostly embedded in the root of isolationism. Even with the rapid global changes we now see in China, they still exclude numerous popular foreign movies for one reason or another, political reasons some would venture to say, or maybe there are too many, and that doesn't stop some people from seeing the movie, i.e. they travel to Taiwan for viewing at the theater. [noparse]:)[/noparse] I must say that almost everything in China is made in China and people have jobs, so another factor to Chinese thinking is keeping money, jobs, and enterprise in China. I hope to see their humanoid robot in a better light. It's going to be very strange if they stop me from taking photos of it again, because of the white color of my skin. Maybe last time it was broken at the Science Center and that knowledge was off limits to Westerners. It looked like a copy of all the other humanoids. I didn't see anything special about the robot that should be hidden. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
  
  Post Edited (Humanoido) : 7/26/2010 3:59:00 PM GMT
• LoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537

  2010-07-26 17:44 edited 2010-07-26 17:44

  Not really. Living here in Taiwan we have seen the present Taiwanese President do everything he possibly can think of to give Taiwan to China. Those in charge of the Taiwan participation balked at China's bullying.
  
  It isn't about excluding movies, it is about denying Taiwanese the right to determine their own destiny and to have the dignity of their own national identity. President Hu of China very recently said the new ECFA (a trade agreement between China and Taiwan) is a great thing for the Chinese race, both in Taiwan and China. I really wonder why race is such a big issue with the Chinese as it certainly didn't serve Germany or Japan very well in WWII. Even the USA has learned its lesson with the burning of Watts and Detroit. We all have to tolerate diverse differences in culture and racial origin and prosper together.
  
  Please feel free to read the People's Republic of China's official translation of their Constitution (available on line) to see why I am wondering. And please forgive me slipping so far from electronics in this posting.
  
  By all means enjoy the World Expo and Shanghai. Travel has been a real eye-opener for me and even the USA is not exempt from some negative insights. When one stays at home, they tend to be blindly patriotic. Asia is an exciting and vibrant region to explore.
  
  ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
  Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?
  
  aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan
  
  Post Edited (Loopy Byteloose) : 7/26/2010 5:54:27 PM GMT
• pjv Posts: 1,903

  2010-07-27 03:38 edited 2010-07-27 03:38

  Hi;
  
  I just returned from Shanghai yesterday, and was litterally within a mile of the Expo, but decided not to attend. The locals who were hosting me said that lineups were a minimum of 2 hours to get into anything. Considering it was hot (over 32 C) and very humid, I decided to pack it in and just come home, as I don't fare well in heat and humidity.
  
  It would have been interesting to go, but just visiting Shanghai was quite an experience. The Mag-Lev train from the airport to downtown - I believe around 30 Km- peaked at 431 km/h. The regular wheeled elctric train, 2 hours from Shanghai to Nanjing peaked at about 330 km/h. At those speeds you can cover a lot of ground in a hurry..... and then be bogged down to a crawl in a taxi!
  
  Cheers,
  
  Peter (pjv)
• Humanoido Posts: 5,770

  2010-08-14 16:04 edited 2010-08-14 16:04

  pjv wrote: »

  Hi; I just returned from Shanghai yesterday, and was litterally within a mile of the Expo, but decided not to attend. The locals who were hosting me said that lineups were a minimum of 2 hours to get into anything. Considering it was hot (over 32 C) and very humid, I decided to pack it in and just come home, as I don't fare well in heat and humidity. It would have been interesting to go, but just visiting Shanghai was quite an experience. The Mag-Lev train from the airport to downtown - I believe around 30 Km- peaked at 431 km/h. The regular wheeled elctric train, 2 hours from Shanghai to Nanjing peaked at about 330 km/h. At those speeds you can cover a lot of ground in a hurry..... and then be bogged down to a crawl in a taxi! Cheers, Peter (pjv)

  Peter, Congratulations! Shanghai is an amazing experience, especially seeing all the modern skyscraper buildings. I always get the feeling of being transported into the future! I had similar experiences on the train, and really enjoyed seeing a greater portion of China out the window like a high speed video... What's with all those nuclear power plants? The other experiences with the heat, humidity and standing in long lines to get to the Expo buildings was challenging. My SONY camera failed - that was a heads up!
  
  At the Japan building it was about 7 hours of standing in heat and high humidity. To make matters worse, ten thousand people are tightly gated in a very long narrow mouse maze with pipe side railing that seems like a mile long, with sometimes a canopy on top that squirts a water mist on you! I considered it torture and conditioning. I finally wised up and used an umbrella and a face mask.
  
  It takes real dedication to endure it but I was determined to see as many humanoid robots as possible. I nearly heat stroked from the 100 deg. heat in the shade and standing that long. I saw other buildings the next day and the lines were very long too. I opted for the France building which had a 2 to 3 hour line, but the temp in the sun was closer to 130 deg. F. This time I used an umbrella to keep out of the sun. Use of a manual Chinese hand-held fan helped save me.
  
  The tips to surviving are ask directions frequently to find things quicker in the heat, try to walk in the shade, take a small folding chair with you, manual chinese fan, buy bottle water and ice popsicles, carry an umbrella, wear a face mask and sunglasses, wrap a wet towel around your neck and hope a breeze will cool it, and take an energy snack or lunch.
  
  Humanoido
• Humanoido Posts: 5,770

  2010-08-14 16:18 edited 2010-08-14 16:18

  I did get to see robots which made everything worthwhile.
  
  http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=124504
  
  Humanoido