INFORMATION FOR THE PLENARY MEETING Xi'an - CHINA from 11-18 Oct. 2010

Wang Fei – ISWC, Chinese DESIRE team,
Li Rui – ISWC, Chinese DESIRE team,
Rudi Hessel - ALTERRA

Dates

 DESIRE program - LANDCON program

Venue

The meeting will be held at Paradise Resort Xi’an.

Registration

The DESIRE China meeting is being organised in cooperation with the LANDCON 1010 conference.

Please note: You will register for both events simultaneously through the DESIRE website registration procedure, no need to register with LANDCON 1010 seperately.

A registration page is implemented on the Desire website. Login to the website, and the link to the registration page will be available in the user menu of the website (Event Registration). Registering for multiple colleagues from the same organisation or institute is possible, you will have to enter identical data for every participant seperately. You officially have to register through the DESIRE registration page (please login to the website and click the Events Registration button in the main menu).
 

Hotels

The venue (hotel 1) can be reached from Hotel 2 (Xi'an International Conference Center, Qujiang Hotel) on foot within 5 minutes. The addresses of both hotels are given in the guide on ‘How to Get Your Hotel’.

There are two options:

1- Paradise Resort Xi’an (Qujiang Xian Hui Yuan Bin guesthouse, a garden-style five-star hotel) weblink

• Room (Single or Double in Building I): 400 Yuan RMB (45 Euro) per night

• Room (Single or Double in Building II): 500 Yuan RMB (56Euro) per night 

   

2- Xi'an International Conference Center (QujiangHotel) weblink

• Room (Single or Double in Building I): 350 Yuan RMB (39 Euro) per night

   

When you register for the meeting you are asked to make reservations for one of these 3 options. Rates include breakfast. Both hotels do accept common credit cards.

Field trip

During the field trip we will visit the famous Terracotta army, the Hukou falls on the Yellow River, the DESIRE study site (YanRiver catchment) and Luochuan Loess National Geopark.
The distance from Xi’an to Hukou Waterfall is 310 km, Hukou to Yan’an230 km and Yan’an to Xian 450 km. It is therefore too far to go to Yan’an in the afternoon Oct 15, so we will stay overnight at Hukou hotel.

Weather

The month of October generally has dry weather and pleasant temperatures. See table below for some climate data for October.  
  

Travel Information

The easiest way to reach Xi’an Xianyang International Airport is via Beijing. From Beijing to Xi’an there are several flights each day. Xi’an airport is about 30 km from town and 55 km from the hotels. If you arrive on October 10 or 11, you will be picked up from the airport if you give us your flight details. Otherwise, you could take a taxi for about 120 Yuan RMB. For more information about getting to your hotel, see The Guide on How to Get Your Hotel, which is attached in English and Chinese. Should your taxi driver not speak English, you can show him the name of your hotel in Chinese.

Money

The official currency of China is the Yuan RMB. 1 Euro is equal to about 9 Yuan RMB, although this might change.
Most hotels will exchange at the same rate as the banks, and without charging commission. To exchange money in Xi’an, you would need to go to a bank (there is one close to the hotels). It is also possible to change at the airport. ATMs are scarce. 

Registration Fee

The DESIRE partners have a reduced fee for LANDCON1010 of 240 EURO (Covering lunch, dinner, banquet, drinking, meeting room and Cultural excursion in the morning of OCT 15 , this fee is NOT covering the hotel and other business expenditures). The fee for students will be 180 EURO.
For the DESIRE partners, another 260 EURO per person should be paid for all other cost including the hotels where we will stay during the excursion (in Hukou Hotel in YichuanCountya and Stone-cave Hotel，Yan’An City), transportation, lunch, dinner, water, tickets, meeting room in Oct 11 and from Oct 15 afternoon to the end of the meeting. Separate receipts for hotel costs can be provided if you need these.

The combined LANDCON/DESIRE fee (= 240+260=500)should be paid by participants themselves on Oct 10, 11, 17 and/or 18. Payment should be in cash, either in Yuan RMB or in Euros. Please note that the fee in Euros might change because the price has been fixed in Yuan RMB and the exchange rate between Yuan RMB and Euro is variable. Please note that you need to pay for the hotel cost for your stay in Xi’an, before leaving for the excursion and before leaving for home. This can be done either by credit card or in cash.

Visa

Almost all nationalities require a visa to come to China. We can provide you with a personal invitation letter. As applying for a visa might take a while, please take the necessary steps on time. When you request ISWC for invitation letters, the following information is needed: name (exactly as in passport), passport number, date of birth and nationality.

Contact 

The meeting is organized by ISWC, contact the persons below for more information:

Wang Fei, mobile phone number: +86 1377211 9949, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ,
Li Rui, mobile phone number: +86 1389281 2012, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This information can also be downloaded as a PDF file by clicking HERE.

A discription on how to reach your hotel from the Xi'an airport (including Chinese text which can be handy in China!) can be downloaded by clicking HERE.