Preparations for our next year’s biannual international congress in China are making tremendous progress. Last June our president Prof. Dr. Peter Houghton and our secretary Dr. Cristina Inocencio visited the congress site and returned with enthusiastic reports. The proposed congress site is just outside the large city of Nanning in southern China, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region. Nanning is a booming city between Southeast Asia and Southwest China. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region adjoins Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao in the east and borders on Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia in the west. It is a centre for exchange between the three economic circles of South and Southwest China and Southeast Asia, playing an important role in the fields of exchange and cooperation in these areas. Located to the south of the Tropic of Cancer, Nanning has a monsoon climate characteristic of the subtropical zone and is influenced by the regulation of a maritime climate. The city is full of sunshine with abundant rainfall (but with little frost and no snowfall).
(source of map. https://www.maps-of-china.com/guangxi-s-ow.shtml, 22/7/05)
Conference Centre, Nanning
The conference centre -built last year for a meeting of ASEAN, (the S E Asian equivalent of the European Union, now based in Nanning) – consists of a modern centre with 21 accommodation units around a lake in a landscaped park.
Conference Hall, Nanning
The accommodation is of a very high standard and can receive over 700 delegates. The conference facilities are state-of-the art and the Conference Hall has several lecture and discussion rooms.
Working hard in the preparatory meeting
Peter Houghton and Cristina Inocencio attended preparatory meetings.
They were introduced to government officials of the region, as well as to academic and business people related to ethnopharmacology/natural products.
Reception with the Vicemayor of Guangxi Province, Ms. Liu Chenguan
Visit to Sanjin Pharmaceutical Group, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Guilin, which specializes in production and research of traditional Chinese medicine preparations.
The Vicemayor of Guangxi Province, Ms. Liu Chenguan and Prof. Peter Houghton
Visit to Guangxi Traditional Chinese Medical University
A thrilling scientific program for the venue next summer is in preparation. As part of the conference scientific program, suggested visits so far are: • Nanning Botanical Garden • University of Traditional Medicine, Nanning • Medicinal Plants Market for Guangxi AR • Factory for production of medicinal products with an ethnopharmacological base I am looking forward to seeing you all next summer in China. PD Dr. Barbara Frei Haller, ISE Newsletter Editor (all pictures taken by Cristina Inocencio or her camera)
