Expo Pub Crawl

There are many ways to experience World Expo -- see amazing architecture, wait in lines to see the big guns, or visit small countries that you probably wouldn't get to in your lifetime. Another way to enjoy Expo is to eat and drink your way through it. This post is about drinking.

Zone C in Pudong where Europe, America and Africa's country pavilions are located have the largest concentration of brewhouses and good restaurants (click on map below). A handful of contenders are in Puxi as well. Note, this is not the cheapest way to do a pub crawl in Shanghai, as you will pay a 160rmb to enter the park (or 90rmb after 5pm) and the beers are not inexpensive. However they are good and you also get to see a lot of Expo.

Here are some suggested stops for an Expo pub crawl, as well as other places you can eat and drink at Expo.

Zone C beers
The Americas, Europe, and Africa make up the westernmost zone on the Pudong side. Enter at Gate 7 or 8, or you can come from the Puxi side by subway or to ferry dock L4 or L6.

Belgium - clearly you can't do a pub crawl without including the Belgians. For those on the fly, you can get Stella, Hoegaarten and something else (sorry I forget) at the little kiosk bar in front of the pavilion alongside the Belgian fries and waffle huts. If you have a few more rmb and time, go up to the 2nd floor cafe. The entrance is to the right of the pavilion queue, and can you walk right in. I got a Chimay (had Red, should have gone White) which comes with cheese, and I was excited to see they had Delirium Tremens which is one of my fav Belgian pale ales.

Germany - obviously we had to stop at Germany as well, and lucky for us, they're only two doors down from the Belgians. They have a small bar and slightly larger restaurant with outdoor seating located at the front of the pavilion under the arches. Light and dark beer. Note, at the risk of sounding like a total wuss, it's worth splitting the 1/2 liter beers with a friend so you can keep going, here and at other pavilions.

Netherlands - wasn't on the original list, but the daily parade foiled our plan to cross the street to Lithuania, and we discovered that the Netherlands sold 20rmb Heinekens at their kiosks closest to the street and Luxembourg. Also was a good time for fried sticks of meat.

Lithuania - the bar at Lithuania is actually inside of the pavilion - enter and you'll see a few bar counters and seating area in front of you towards the left. They serve serveral kinds of Svyturys, which was fantastic. Our pavilion directors swears this is the best beer at Expo, and it was one of the best we had.

Mexico - we were hungry after four pavilions so head to Mexico, sponsored by Corona and with Mexican fare at their restaurant (and decent accessible bathrooms btw. Belgian cafe is the other nice pit stop). The entrance to the restaurant is at the exit of the pavilion -- walk down the left side of the stairs where everyone is coming out, and you'll see the restaurant on the left.

Malta - our last stop for the evening was at Malta Pavilion, a small pavilion within the Europe Joint Pavilion I, and one of my favorites. The bar is towards the end of the pavilion visit, and they serve Cisk, a Maltese lager named after slang for 'cheque' from the old owner's banking background. They said we need to come back to get the Cisk 'X'. Say "thank you" to them in their native language - sounds like Italian "grazie"

Czech - one pavilion that we missed on the beer tour was Czech where they serve Budvar, the Czech Budweiser.

Zone C wine and spirits
There's also a fine selection of wine and other drinks in this corner of Expo

Argentina - I am itching to try the Argentinian steak house with wine from their 15 sponsor wineries. Argentinian steak... mmm...

Chile - the other great wine from the region comes from Chile. I hear they have a great wine bar where you can pass away the day.

Moldova - the obscure former Soviet republic produced some fantastic wines. There's a Moldovan merlot that I loved, along with a pretty wide selection from what I hear. Moldova Pavilion is part of Europe Joint Pavilion II.

Peru - Peru's national drink is the Pisco Sour, a fantastic concoction of pisco (grape liquor), egg whites, lime/lemon, sugars and bitters. The drink is fantastic, and I'd recommend a refueling stop here for their amazing ceviche, seafood rice, and the potato turnovers.

Cuba - unfortunately Cuba was closed by 9:30pm on Saturday night, but hear they serve great mojitos

Spain - the tapas restaurant on the ground floor of the Spain Pavilion also serves sherry. Enter the restaurant at the right of the queue.

Angola - I am not sure how Angola made the list, except they are supposed to have 38rmb cocktails at their bar...

Puxi options
So the Puxi side is less trafficked but has some hidden gems.

Asashi Beer Garden - hard to walk by without stopping for a beer. Second floor of one of the dining buildings at the border of Zone D and E by the Aurora Pavilion, there's really nothing else around there. Could be your first stop if you come in from Gate 2.

Madrid - Madrid Pavilion has a fantastic tapas restaurant on the 3rd floor, and they also do sangria and churros. Madrid is at the faaaar corner of Zone E Urban Best Practice Area, but really is one of my favorite city pavilions.

Barcelona - stop by at Barcelona's funky neon pavilion and head towards the back to their wine bar. Also in Zone E Urban Best Practices Area.

Japan Business - not so much a bar, but Zone D Japan Business Pavilion food court has awesome green tea ice cream, yakisoba and takoyaki, and cold cans of beer. Nice stop on the way home from work :)

Here's a SmartShanghai article on Expo pub crawling... pictures at the bottom are nice...
http://www.smartshanghai.com/blog/1669/Getting_Pissed_at_the_Expo.html