Kevin Dolgin is American independent publishing house McSweeney’s man on the street in Paris, globetrotter and author of The Third Tower Up From the Road (Santa Monica Press). He recently paid a visit to Expo and lived to tell the tale.

What drew you to Expo?
I'm a traveler and a travel writer - the Expo is like "Earth in a Bottle"... you get a tiny facsimile of a whole bunch of countries in one hand-held package. These fragile little models may only vaguely resemble the real thing, but you can see the resemblance and, if you try hard enough, you can talk to the people who work the pavilions and get their insights into life, China, their countries, etc.

Another draw is the locals and visiting Chinese themselves, seeing how they relate to the rest of the world in its bottle form. And of course, as a travel writer, it’s a chance to do a little pre-trip research… should I go to Brunei? (no) What is there to do in Burkina Faso? (not much) Is the beer in Malta an inducement? (yes).

Oh, and there is the thrill of looking for choice merchandise in the “Licensed Product” stores. I’ve thought of dyeing my cat blue to resemble Haibao, but my wife (and the cat) protest.

How many pavilions did you hit?
Dozens. But you must understand that I had a very different pavilion-hitting strategy. I decided only to visit countries that I had never visited in real life and never intended on visiting. Since I’m a well-traveled guy, that effectively ruled out almost all major countries as well as a slew of minor ones, leaving me with destinations like Libya and Azerbaijan, where the queues were far shorter and where the only Chinese visitors were pretty much there just to get their passports stamped.

The jackpot in this case is one of the big collective pavilions. My favorite is the African one, where all the tiny countries in Africa that are too small to have their own pavilion have a kind of stand. Smooshing Africa together like that makes for a boisterous atmosphere; lots of rhythm and spice.

Favorites?
Ah, I guess I just answered that. Let’s zoom in then. Inside the big collective African pavilion, you must check out Gabon. They’ve done wonders with a very small space, and the people who work there are very nice – (this is the case throughout Africa-in-a-bottle).

From the outside I’d have to say The Netherlands, but it’s mostly because it looks like an amusement park ride. That’s the one thing that’s missing from these kinds of events… rides. I didn’t enter the Dutch pavilion (see above for my pavilion-visiting strategy) but I’m sure I can provide useful advice if I tell you not to try the food there. With the availability of food from just about any nation in the world, why would you eat Dutch food? I bet even the Dutch head over to the Indonesian pavilion for lunch.

Least favorites?
I have to say that I was disappointed by New Zealand. This was the one exception to my rule… I do plan on getting to New Zealand one day, but I visited the pavilion anyway and discovered that it was essentially just an extension of the queue to get in. I mean, the pictures and videos were all very nice – (kiwis going to work, fjords, etc) – but I kind of felt like a sheep, shuffling along in a never-ending line. Then again, that may be the quintessential New Zealand experience – being a sheep.

Once again, from the outside, my thumbs down goes to the UK. What were they smoking when they thought of that thing? I mean, it’s very innovative and all, but it really does look like one of the dust balls you find under your bed when you realize after a couple of years that you’ve never swept up under there. I’m not quite sure what that has to do with the UK.