SHANGHAI SOUTH CHINA ALL CHINA - AHKs

The World
Chocolate Wonderland
– or Dreamland
– exhibition opened its
doors to the public in
January and runs until fellow visitors over sour drops that forced us
April 10 to make funny faces at each other. The ‘Sweet
Experience Hall’ and with it the last station
was an estranging assortment of fun fair, arcade
games, candy dispensers and the crowded ‘D-I-Y
chocolate’ room in which you could create your own four-piece
gift box of chocolates to take home. A meagre little Kinder bar was
handed to me on the way out past the cash registers of the inflated
souvenir store – my only yield of the day.
th .
Back outside, young employees dressed up as clowns listlessly
played catch with each other, and I realised what the Chocolate Wonderland
was missing – the kind of chocolate that melts in the mouth,
not the one the Great Wall was made of…and certainly some kids
to run after the bored clowns and kick them in the behind to cheer
them up. JNS
www.china.ahk.de
2010 April - May 69