Local Arrangements and
Some Tips
for Attending COCOA�2011
(1) Registering on Site
(1.1) A registration desk will be set up at the lobby of the conference hotel.
(1.2) Registration time is 14:00-20:00 on August 3 and 08:30-12:00 on August 4. For other time you may register at the room of organization committee.
(1.3) A package of conference materials will be provided for each participant who has paid the registration fee. It includes a volume of proceedings, a copy of program, your conference name tag, a ball pen, a notebook, a set of tickets for all organized lunches/ dinner/ banquet/ performance/ tour.
(1.4) You MUST wear your conference name tag and give your tickets to waiter/waitress when attending all sessions and taking all organized lunches/ dinner/ banquet/ performance/ tour.
(2) Presenting Papers
(2.1) All talks MUST be presented in one of the forms of ppt, pdf, doc, ps files. NO projector for transparent slides will be provided.
(2.2) You can either bring your own laptop, or bring a mobile hard disk, USB disk with your files saved.
(2.3) Meeting rooms for all plenary and parallel sessions are at 6th meeting room on the 2nd floor of the hotel.
(3) Watching Performance
(3.1) The local organizer will invite all participants to watch a folk performance in the evening of August 5, Charms of XiangXi (XiangXi is a Chinese abbreviation of a large area including Zhangjiajie).
(3.2) Before watching the performance in the evening, all participants will be invited to enjoy a dinner of local cuisine at a hotel outside the hotel.
(3.3) Fare for performance is included in the registration fee (Tickets are needed).
(4) Joining One-day Tour
(4.1) An one-day tour for sightseeing of Zhangjiajie is organized on Aug 6, including Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park in the morning and Huanglong Karst Cave in the afternoon.
(4.2) All participants must summon outside the hotel at 8:00. We will return the hotel and have supper around 17:30 (we will have lunch at a restaurant outside the hotel).
(4.3) Fare for one-day tour is included in the registration fee(Tickets are needed).
(4.4) To attend the tour, you are advised to wear sneakers, casual clothes, sun glasses and have enough protection of your skin.
(5) Taking Meals
(5.1) Breakfast is served at the 1st floor of the hotel, lunches, banquet and dinner at the hotel will be served at dinning room No. 203 on the 2nd floor.
(5.2) Fares for breakfasts (of at most two people) are included at the room charges, while fares for other meals during the conference are included in the registration fee.
(6) Arriving at the Conference Hotel
(6.1) COCOA�2011 will be held at Qinghe Jin Jiang International Hotel, which is a 4-star hotel located at No.1 JunDi road, Wulingyuan District, ZhangJiaJie City, Hunan Province, China.
(6.2) All participants need go to the conference hotel themselves. Hence for those who do not speak Chinese may write down the Chinese name of the hotel in the following ways before they leave for Zhangjiajie: (a) ask a Chinese colleague/student/friend to help you, or (b) print out and cut the Chinese direction provided at the next page.
(6.3) It is recommended that you should always take a taxi waiting in a line and tell the taxi driver where you want to go. You may also reserve a pick-up service by sending a request to the hotel (contact: Mr. Gordon Li, [email protected]; 15207445018), which costs 200 RMB for CAMRY and 300 RMB for Buick Business.
(6.4) If you go to Zhangjiajie by air, then you may get to the hotel by taxi from Zhangjiajie Hehua airport, which costs about 40 min (on mountain road) and 150 RMB (it�s quite common that local drivers don�t use meters). You may also take shuttle bus from the airport to downtown first, and then take either mini-bus or taxi to the hotel, that saves money quite a lot (but not time) provided that you can speak Chinese.
(7) Preparing Trip to Zhangjiajie
(7.1) Zhangjiajie in summer is rather hot during the day (the temperature could be around 38 ℃ ) but not very hot in the evening (the temperature is around 30 ℃ ).
(7.2) As it often rains in summer at Zhangjiajie, it is recommended to take a rain coat (and an umbrella) since it is convenient especially when you are going to attend the one-day tour.
(8) Taking Money and Giving Tips
(8.1) It is strongly recommended that you should take some cash of Chinese Yuan or major currencies (such as USD, Euro, Japanese Yen, HKD) along with major credit cards. It is NOT convenient to use traveler check in mainland China.
(8.2) Since Zhangjiajie is a rather small city, you are recommended to exchange some cash of Chinese Yuan at some major airports in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong. Of course, you may also exchange Chinese Yuan at some local offices/branches of Bank of China (or some other major China Banks). But that is quite difficult, especially if you could not understand Chinese, and time-consuming.
(8.3) You can pay all expenses at the conference hotel by both cash of Chinese Yuan (or major currencies) and credit cards.
(8.4) Giving tips is far from popular in mainland China, even when you take a taxi or have meal at a restaurant. At the conference hotel, you are also not expected to give a tip to someone who has provided you with a service but he/she may receive it if you are willing to give. In short, it is up to you (NOT a custom in mainland China) to give tips or not.
(9) Asking for Help
(9.1) Before August 3, please send your inquiries about local arrangement at [email protected].
(9.2) After August 3, please phone the conference hotel: 0086-0744-55566888
(9.3) Emergency/Police Call in mainland China is 110 (just like 911 in US).
