【英语生活】世博游客假扮残疾人 展馆关闭绿色通道

Visitors to the Saudi Arabian pavilion of Shanghai's World Expo might be spending more time there than they bargained for if you include waits of up to nine hours.

While the opening weeks at Expo saw surprisingly low attendance, Saudi Arabia's pavilion has emerged as among the most popular, according to a report in Shanghai's Liberation Daily. Thousands of expo-goers, the elderly among them, have braved Shanghai's humidity for a chance to see the 'moon boat,' a nickname for the country's 6000-square-meter pavilion complete with date palm trees planted on the structure's roof.

'In the very beginning, few people paid attention to Saudi Arabia,' said Terrence Ou, CEO and founder of The Great Wall Adventure Club, which specializes in trips to the Expo. 'It's an Arabian country and people thought they know what it looks like by looking at the TV or whatever.'

That changed, however, when word spread of the Saudi pavilion and its 1,600-square-meter movie screen, among the world's largest. France may have duty-free perfume to sell, while Australia has Ugg boots and China a dose of patriotism, but no one seems to have tapped visitors' desire to glimpse the future quite like the Saudis.

That doesn't mean all Expo-goers are patiently waiting their turn. Saudi Arabia, along with several other countries, recently closed down express handicapped access to the pavilion after visitors were found to be faking disabilities, according to a report in the Shanghai Daily.

Saudi Arabia and Sweden, which reported 4,000 people each day faked disabilities at its pavilion, shut down special handicapped access, the newspaper reported, while Germany began requiring visitors with disabilities to make reservations in advance.

Yan Linhong, a spokeswoman for the Swedish pavilion, said, 'We once saw one elderly person accompanied by nine adults, trying to force an entry through the express lane.'

A state-run legal news website even weighed in, running an editorial under the headline, 'Don't let the 'falsely disabled' be the humiliation of mankind.'

Things are only about to get more hectic at the Expo, Ou said, because Chinese schools are just letting out for the summer and the event is likely to grow as a family favorite. It was tough for him to venture a guess, however, at what might be the summer's next craze.

'Anything with the Expo right now is unpredictable,' he said.

如果把最长九个小时的等候时间算在内，上海世博游客参观沙特阿拉伯馆所花的时间可能比他们预想的要长。

虽然世博头几个星期的游客数量意外低迷，但据上海《解放日报》报道，沙特阿拉伯馆已成为最受欢迎的展馆之一。已有成千上万的世博游客不顾上海的潮湿天气，争取机会前来一睹“月亮船”的真容，其中不乏老者。“月亮船”是沙特馆的昵称，面积6000平方米，建筑的顶上种有海枣树。

Reuters夜色中的沙特阿拉伯馆专做世博游的“长城探险俱乐部”(The Great Wall Adventure Club)CEO、创始人欧朝晖(Terrence Ou)说，刚开始的时候，很少有人注意沙特，这是一个阿拉伯国家，人们以为只要看看电视什么的就知道它是什么样子。

但有关沙特馆及其1,600平方米、面积世界罕见的电影屏幕的描述传开之后，这种情况发生了改变。法国馆可能有免税香水出售，澳大利亚馆有Ugg鞋子，中国馆可以激发人们的爱国热忱，但似乎没有哪一个展馆真正像沙特馆那样利用游客一窥未来的欲望来吸引他们。

这并不是说所有世博游客都会耐心等着轮到自己。据《上海日报》(Shanghai Daily)报道，由于发现一些游客假扮残疾人，沙特馆及其他多个国家展馆最近关闭了残疾人快速通道。

《上海日报》报道说，沙特馆与瑞典馆关闭了残疾人特殊通道，德国馆开始要求残障游客事先预订。报道说，瑞典馆每天报告有4,000人假装残疾。

瑞典馆发言人颜林虹（音）说，我们曾看到一位老人有九位成年人陪伴，试图从快速通道中挤进来。

一家官方法制新闻网站也加入讨论，发表了一篇评论文章，题为“莫让‘假残障’羞辱了人性化”。

欧朝晖说，接下来世博只会显得更加忙乱，因为中国的学校马上就要放暑假了，而世博有可能成为家庭出游的热门选项。但这个夏季的下一次疯狂是什么样的，他不敢猜测。

他说，有关世博的任何事情目前都是没法预料的。