Thursday, May 31, 2012

Yeosu EXPO 2012: Reflections (Part 1)

expo3 Back in 2010, there was the “City Makes Life Better” Expo held in Shanghai. I was so excited that I purchased tickets in advance. However, according to the news, there were so many people that normally it would take people 6-8 hours to wait for a premier pavilion. Not only that, the trip itself would be costly, which made me make the decision: not to go.

How fortunate I am to be a member in the Woosong Herald, which offers its staff the most wonderful incentives. This time, it offered all its staff a 2 day-1 night trip to Namwon and the Yeosu Expo.

Everyone was so inspired that no one was late for the scheduled departure: 1:00 on May 11th. After one day staying in Namwon, we headed to Yeosu the next morning. We were worried whether there would be a traffic jam due to the opening ceremony, but it turned out that was not necessary. We arrived at 9:30 and we were able to enjoy the expo for a good eight hours.

This year's expo theme was related to marine life and ecology, which is easy to understand because Yeosu is a city on the coastline. It is about time for humans to pay more attention to the ecology as well.

The first thing that impressed me was that there were so many volunteers. Even in the restroom, a volunteer would never leave his position, which made me “uncomfortable.” It was not proper to ask him questions in the restroom, so I made a short interview with another volunteer, Chonghua Lee, at the gate. According to her, not all the volunteers are paid for this event, some of them regard this as their temporary job with a sustainable pay, others were simply helping for one day or two.

“This is my current job. I am doing this because I like to meet people. While I am doing this, I feel I am doing something good for everyone. I am very proud of myself,” said Lee, a 27 year-old volunteer.

We made two appointments for the Theme Pavilion and Aquarium. After waiting for about 10 minutes, we were able to visit the Theme Pavilion. It was scientific, informative and entertaining at the same time. In the Theme Pavilion, there were all sorts of important facts about marine life and ecology. And there was an adorable dugong telling the mysteries about the sea.

After this, we visited many international pavilions, all of which were connected to the theme.IMG_9206

The most visit-worthy part of the Yeosu Expo, in my opinion, would be the Firm Section. All high technology-supported shows were there, like Samsung and Hyundai. The employees were not allowed to take any interviews, so I chatted with two of them, wanting to know more about the big companies’ perspectives about marine life.

“Seventy percent of the earth is covered by water; who dominates the sea dominates the earth,” said an anonymous, ambitious employee from Samsung.

“Our mission in [the] 21st century is unlocking the mysteries about the sea,” said another employee form Hyundai.

It was an interesting and meaningful trip. All I hope is I could visit the Yeosu Expo again shortly and explore the rest of it.


Staff writer Ying Cheng Hao is currently a Woosong University student majoring in Railway Electrical Engineering.

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