Linggusi pagoda
Mochou Lake Park
Nanjing city wall
"Elephant Road" of the Ming tomb
Nanjing's skyline
Science and Technology Museum
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Bid to host ITP 2015 in Nanjing |
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Nanjing is situated
in the heart of China — close to Shanghai and roughly
equidistant between Beijing and Hong Kong. It is a former capital
during the Ming Dynasty with a rich cultural heritage. We propose
to hold the 5th ITP Conference in Nanjing. The organising committee
would be chaired by Xingyuan Zhang and Christian Urban.
Travel to Nanjing
Nanjing is a major city in China. There are international airline
connections directly to Nanjing
Lukou Airport and via transfer at airports in Hong Kong, Beijing,
Shanghai and many others. There are also very convenient train
connections from Shanghai and Beijing, which take slightly more than
1h from Shanghai and about 4h from Beijing. Travel within Nanjing can
be done cheaply via taxi and public transport.
Venue and Accommodation
The plan is to host the conference at the
Hanyuan
Hotel, which is inexpensive
(ca. 350元/£35/$60/€40 per night including breakfast)
and in easy reach from the city centre (see here
at Google Maps). It has the usual amenities for hosting conferences
(Wifi, conference rooms, etc) and has links to neighbouring
universities. There is also the possibility to use lecture rooms for
free in Xingyuan's university at the other side of the road. Hanyuan
Hotel includes a restaurant and there are innumerable restaurants
around the hotel and in downtown Nanjing, all usually very affordable.
There are also many additional
hotels in all price categories nearby.
Advantages of Hosting ITP in Nanjing
There are several groups in the ITP area that are active in China. For example for the last
five years there have been popular
summerschools in China about Coq
with 50 or so student participants each. ITP (and TPHOLs) have
never been hosted in
China, and this might be an opportunity for the ITP community to foster relations
with researchers from China and Asia, and for local researchers to become part of the
ITP community.
Being in China, Nanjing offers the usual conveniences of good and
affordable food. It has several excellent
museums
and tourist attractions.
In the nearby vicinity are touristic hotspots like
Yangzhou,
Hangzhou,
Wuxi and
Suzhou.
Travelling
visas
to China should be easy to obtain for participants.
Timing and programme
We propose to hold the conference in late summer, for example in
the last week of August (which is the usual time for ITP/TPHOLs) or
first week of September. However we can be flexible and accommodate any
other time in July and August. As is the tradition, the conference
would consist of 4 days of research presentations and invited
talks. Like in previous conferences, we would allow ample time
between the formal sessions for attendees to mingle and converse. We
expect workshops to take place during one or two days before or after
the main conference. Half a day will be dedicated to an excursion...
Excursion
We have two possible destinations for an excursion in mind: one is to
Yangzhou (1h away
from Nanjing by bus), and the other is a (more leisurely) tour of
Nanjing and its attractions. The tour to Yangzhou would involve a walk
around the Slender West Lake with its pavilions, the white Lotus
Flower Pagoda and the Suzhou-style gardens. One the way we would
visit the Daming Temple
and the old Stone Pagoda of Yangzhou. The day
would finish with a dinner in the well-known
Fuchun restaurant. The
best tour around Nanjing is to go to the
Purple Mountains passing by
the Linggusi pagoda,
the city wall and the
Ming tombs (see pictures on
the left). There is a wide selection of excellent restaurants around
Nanjing's Confucius Temple for a conference dinner. If our bid is
chosen, we would canvas for opinions about what participants would be
most interested in.
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Yangzhou, Slender West Lake |
Finance
We will seek to keep costs low by negotiating discounts with
the hotel and by trying to find sponsoring where sensible.
Experience of the Programme Chairs and Local Organisation
Xingyuan and Christian are regular participants at ITP. Christian was a
co-organiser of the TPHOLs conference
in 2009 in Munich.
We will make use of the infrastructure available at Xingyuan's university for local
organisation. There will also be a student team that helps with running the conference.
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