Expo 2012 opens today in Yeosu, South Korea. The three-month-long international exposition will revolve around the theme of “The Living Ocean and Coast”. More than 100 countries and ten international organisations are taking part in the event, which is expected to attract more than eight million visitors from across the globe.
The expo aims to inform visitors about humankind’s interaction with the ocean and outline some of the greatest challenges we face in terms of preserving the diversity of marine life and sustainable use of oceanic resources.
The countries and companies taking part will each build a pavilion to showcasing their cultural, technological and political interpretations of the expo theme. Many of the structures at the previous expo in Shanghai (2010) were magnificent in design and size.
In its installation, the host city has chosen to use modern technology to draw attention to the coastal setting. Yeosu has built a gigantic round-shaped structure in the water called the Big-O. The structure, standing as tall as a 13-storey building, will display colourful holograms, fire lasers and flames.
Not surprisingly, given South Korea’s leadership in the market, Expo 2012 will be heavily oriented around technology. The event is being billed as the biggest gathering of robots in the history of expos. At one booth a robotic fish swims around a tank shooting lasers from its nose, while at another a human-like machine will smile, cry, wink and frown at visitors.
The host city Yeosu, a port city 300km (187 miles) south of Seoul, is recognised as having some of the most scenic areas on South Korea’s southern coast. Its wide coast, which is submerged daily by flood tides and rich with sea life, is its biggest tourist attraction.
World Expositions, sometimes called World’s Fairs, have been taking place since 1851. This year’s event will be the 53rd of its kind. The next expo takes place in 2015 in Milan, Italy.
Watch a preview video of the event.
Entry: One-day tickets are about £18, two days, £31, three days, £37.
Getting there: One-hour flight from Seoul, plus a 30-minute bus ride from the Yeosu airport to the expo. By high-speed KTX train, three hours from Seoul to a train station near the expo site.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
(Image: Expo 2012 Yeosu)
