Dashing at entrance

Coming early is a crucial link to get the limited reservation tickets for the China Pavilion and shorten the hours of waiting outside other pavilions. But a front position on the queue is not enough, "dashing as fast as you can is a must to secure a ticket", according to instructions posted online by experienced visitors.

When the gate opened at around 9 a.m., visitors holding those illustrated instructions, widely spread on the Internet, or bearing them in mind, began a 200-meter race to the safety checkpoints.

Already experienced the race once, He Wenping and her daughter brought as few things as possible and put them in their backpacks so that they wouldn't need to fumble their pockets at the safety check. "It saves about 10 seconds," said an instruction titled "1,000-Meter Race."

After getting the China Pavilion tickets from a machine at the end of the safety check, they had to continue running along a route marked out in red lines on the instruction to leave the crowds behind.

"By following the instructions, we can visit one or two popular pavilions before noon without lining for hours. Then we'll go to the China Pavilion with the reservation tickets in the afternoon," He said.

At first, Ni thought he need not hurry because he was on the first row. "I didn't feel like running after a night's wait. But people started to pass by us and some were pushing me from behind. Then, for a second, I felt worried, a night's wait cannot be in vain," he said.

After a moment of hesitation, Ni and his friends were on full gear. Young and athletic, they were among the first to pass the safety check and got the reservation tickets for the China Pavilion.

Tickets to the China Pavilion, given out free to visitors who came early, are used to curb waiting hours. With the ticketing system, it usually takes about an hour to enter the China Pavilion. While other popular pavilions often require three to five hours. At its peak, visitors had to wait for eight hours to get into the Saudi Arabia Pavilion.

As of 9:36 a.m., more than 127,000 visitors have entered the 5.28-square-km Expo Park.

Source: China.org

Editor: Xu Xinlei