China Planning Network (CPN)

China Week 2008

: Tsinghua University Vice President Yuan Si

Letter of Support

(printable)

July 14, 2008

Dear MIT Faculty Chair Professor Bish Sanyal, MIT Professor Lawrence Vale, CPN Commissioners, Distinguished Speakers and Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Good Morning!

I have a very clear and pleasant memory of last year's CPN Urban Transport Congress, which granted me a great privilege to host the CPN-Tsinghua Seminar on the discussion of Beijing's transport in preparation for the Olympic Games. I was greatly impressed by the insightful, diverse and frank comments presented by the speakers during the seminar and even after the seminar. Those expert advices and suggestions have been benefiting the preparation for the Beijing's Olympic Games. I am very glad that CPN is continuing its endeavor to organize the 2008 China Week introducing discussions on urban transport, urban housing, cross-cultural education, and post-disaster recovery. I would like to emphasize the importance of these discussions to China's urbanization and development and thank you very much for coming to China and helping us with your thoughts and experiences.

The tragic earthquake in Sichuan saddens our people but the great care and support the world offers to China soothes us. I sincerely appreciate the effort that MIT and China Planning Network (CPN) have put forward to call for the world academic and professional community on post-disaster recovery to share with China the experience and expertise from other parts of the world.

Situations differ but principles remain. Once again, I am expecting the suggestions and advices that all of you are bringing to the CPN City Resilience Roundtable, which, I believe, together with the Sichuan Fieldtrip, will be of irreplaceable value to the impacted people and regions in the Sichuan Earthquake.

I like this conference also because it stimulates our thinking on what are the roles of the academic institutes such as Tsinghua University at this critical moment. I am delighted that MIT and CPN invite Tsinghua University as a partner of the 2008 CPN China Week and hope we can contribute to this collective effort together with all of the world institutes and organizations and continue to strengthen this collaboration.

I am honored to be here with you to share this exciting event and I would like to present this message to show my deep appreciation and full support. I wish you all a great success of the conference and a fantastic experience in China.

Sincerely,

Yuan Si
Vice President
Tsinghua University