The 8th International Congress on the Jurassic System will be held in Shehong of Suining, Sichuan Province. Sichuan is well known as the hometown of Giant Panda and Chinese Dragons, and is a splendid land in SW China belonging to Tibet Plateau and Sichuan Basin. This province has fantastic historical culture, as well as tourist and geoscience resources, including 5 UNESCO World Culture and Natural Heritage Sites.

          

Suining, a city with over 2000 years’ long history, and China's Outstanding Tourist City, is located in the central Sichuan Basin, and represented by ascendant natural environment and profound cultural relics, including the Lingquan Temple of Sui Dynasty, the Guangde Temple of the Tang Dynasty, the unique Porcelain Museum of Song Dynasty, and the hometowns of the Guanying Buda. In particular, Suining is famous for the Jurassic studies, including the strato-sections of the Late Jurassic “Suining Formation” and “Penglaizhen Formation”.

Shehong County, administratively attached to the Suining City, has a population of 1.02 million, with developed economy and convenient transportation. It is close to three major cities including Chengdu, Chongqing and Mianyang. Shehong has a long history of 1500 years, as early as in Paleolithic, human beings have lived here. In 201 BC, the Han Emperor Liu Bang has established the county in this area; in 544 AD, the Emperor Gongdi of Western Wei Dynasty set up the Shejiang County, which was renamed as Shehong County in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and has been in use ever since.

Shehong is well known for its strong atmosphere of culture, outstanding people as well as rich and colorful folk culture and art. It is the hometown of Mr. Chen Zi’ang, very great poet of the Tang Dynasty, and the “Home of the Liquor in China” represented by the Tuopai Brand Liquor (one of the best liquors’ brand in China). Shehong is a charming city with full of vitality and beautiful landscape of garden. It has beautiful ecological environment, mild climatic conditions and many natural attractions and cultural relics, including the Shehong National Geopark of Jurassic Petrified Forest, Mr. Chen Zi’ang’s Reading Platform (the national key cultural relic protection unit), Tuopai “Tai’an Workshop” of China food and cultural relic as well as Jinhua Mountain, Ping'an Resort and other cultural and natural landscapes.

All the congress sessions and accommodations will be arranged in the Fuluowan Hotel in Shehong, a beautiful lake-side four-star level hotel with diverse hotel rooms and modern convention facilities surrounded by the Upper Jurassic outcrops and the Fujiang River.

• Weather conditions and type of clothing
August is a hot season in the Sichuan Basin. The temperature varies approximately from 25oC to 35oC with occasional rains. All hotel and conference rooms and bus vehicles are air-conditioned. The summer clothes and umbrella are recommended during the congress sessions. Autumn clothes are suggested for those who will participate the field excursions in Xinjiang, Liaoning and Tibet.