FUDCon:Bid for Beijing 2011

In other languages: English (en) 中文 (zh) [edit]

Dates

Proposed: (11+)12+13 November 2011

• Friday: arrival day, FUDpub
• Saturday: Unconference with possible themed track in another room
• Sunday: Half-day hackfests, half-day unconference track (to present hackfest work, etc).

Location

About Beijing

Beijing (北京) is the capital and cultural heart of China. It houses many universities and high profile IT companies of which Red Hat China is one.

Beijing is the second largest city in the People's Republic of China and has a very distinct and easy layout. The city is based around a ring structure which starts with the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum) being the center.

The city allows you to easily move around using public transport, of which the Subway is probably the best way.

At the moment three options are being considered for hosting this event.

Option One: Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications

BUPT is a national university specializing in the field of cable communications, wireless communications, computer, and electronic engineering. It is located in Haidian district is easily reachable by public transport (Line 10). This option is considered due to the good relationship with the Red Hat Engineering office in Beijing. Discussions about renting classrooms or other co-operation is being discussed.

The BUPT Science and Technology Plaza have different size of conference rooms, with internet of 4M bandwidth, screen, white board, microphone and beverage service.

Prices

• Conference room for 40p: $330/day
• Conference room for 60p: $370/day
• Conference room for 100p: $990/day

Links

• http://www.bupt.edu.cn/ (page unfortunately lacks English)

Option Two:Renmin University

Renmin University is one of China's top universities and provides an excellent location for hosting this event due to public transport (Line 10). It lies in Haidian District, Beijing's Silicon Valley. Rent of classroom is possible; discount option available. Booking needs to be done 2 months in advance.

Links

• http://english.ruc.edu.cn/en/

Option Three: National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The location is very easy to reach by Subway Line 4, only 5 minutes' walk from Exit of Zhong Guan Cun Station,furthermore, it's 20 minutes' walk distance from Red Hat Beijing Engineering office. Conference room is well furnished and equipped with facilities. Wifi, microphone, projector, screen, white board are available.

Prices

• Conference room for 60p: $428/day
• Conference room for 100p: $550/day

Links

• http://english.las.cas.cn/

Reference Links

• http://wikitravel.org/en/Beijing
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_10,_Beijing_Subway

Major Local Airports

Beijing Capital International Airport (Airport Code: PEK) is the major airport servicing Northern China and Beijing.

Transit to/from airport

The airport is easily accessible by public transport, e.g. subway and shuttle bus. Taxi takes about 40-50 mins from airport to the center of the city.

Local Mass Transit

The venue is easily reachable with public transport; several buses go to Renmin University and it is walking distance from Suzhoujie station along Subway Line 10. Also, the Beijing office of Red Hat is easily reachable using line 10.

Local Restaurants

Many styles of food is on offering. Almost in every street you can find a cheap restaurant which offers all kinds of Chinese food. Using Line 10 you can travel to Tuanjiehu and visit Sanlitun (三里屯). This area is famous as an international bar street and offers a lot of different styles of Western food. Another option which is about 15 minutes away is Wudaokao (五道口), this is also a famous area mostly known among students. There are too many options available to specify here ;-)

Hotel

A lot of different hotel options are available and are currently under discussion.

• Option 1 Wen Jin Hotel, a 4-star hotel, 20 minutes' taxi from FUDCon location BUPT, 20 minutes' walk from the Red Hat China Engineering office, 10 minutes' walk from the famous Wudaokou bar street. Food selection is quite abundant in nearby distance from typical Beijing Roast Duck to Korean barbecue.
• Option 2 The Jade Palace, a 5-star hotel. It's easily accessible by Subway line 10 and only within 5 minutes' walk distance from Exit B. 20 minutes' walk to Red Hat Engineering office, half an hour's bus to BUPT.
• Option 3 BUPT Science and Technology Plaza. The same place with FUDCon event.
• Option 4 Yi Hai Hotel, easy to reach by Line 13, only 10 minutes' walk to BUPT.
• Option 5 Yan Shan Hotel, right besides Ren Min University. 5 minutes' walk from Ren Men Da Xue station of Line 4.

Estimated Hotel Costs/night/room

• 5 star: The Jade Palace; $93, internet, bathtub & shower (breakfast included).
• 4 star: Wen Jin Hotel; $125, internet, bathtub & shower (breakfast included, high floor).
• 3 star: BUPT Science and Technology Plaza; $55, internet and shower (breakfast included).
• 3 star: Yi Hai Hotel; $52, internet and shower (breakfast not included).
• 3 star apartment: Yan Shan Hotel; $44 to 55, internet and shower (breakfast not included).

Cheaper hotel options are available, but mostly personnel is not proficient enough at English. If needed, special arrangement or last-minute can be discussed. On the following hotel map options can be found near the possible venue.

Transit to/from FUDCon

Easy access to the venue is possible by public transport.

Alternate Venues for Meeting (not in a hotel)

The Beijing Engineering Office with well furnished and equipped meeting rooms is an alternative choice for this event.

Availability

The Engineering office at Raycom near Tsinghua University has shown interest to offer their training center for activities. This options is currently under discussion.

This locations is within walking distance from a stop along subway Line 10 and about 10-15 minutes away from the venue by taxi.

Food and Catering

Fruit, small snacks and different kind of food can be arranged. After the bidding phase we can collect information about specific needs.

Transportation to Event

Price indication for flight tickets. For international and domestic flights you can fly directly to Beijing (PEK; Beijing Capital Airport). For domestic flights it is also possible to use Tianjin (Tianjin Binhai airport) and take the high speed train to Beijing (this takes about 30-40mins).

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Capital_International_Airport
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_Binhai_International_Airport

Costs from NA and LATAM

• New York (JFK): from $1100
• Boston (BOS): from $1100
• Washington: from $1100
• Los Angeles (LAX): from $850
• ...

Costs from Europe and Africa

• Frankfurt (FRA): from $800
• Munich (MUC): from $750
• Berlin: from $750
• Amsterdam: from $750
• Brussels: from $770
• Vienna: from $760

Costs from Asia and Australia

• Tokyo: from $500
• Hong Kong: from $300
• Singapore: from $450
• Delhi: from $550
• Pune: from $980 (2 stops: Delhi, HK)
• Sydney: from $950
• Brisbane: from $1800

Costs from China

• collected on the following page: Chinese translation

Organizers/Event owners

• Gerard Braad
• Yong Yuan
• Grace Liu from Red Hat Beijing Engineering

Pros and Cons of Proposed Location

Pro

• Opportunity to grow Open Source and Fedora presence in Asia
• Possible co-operation with various user groups in Beijing and China, e.g. China Unix, Beijing LUG, etc.
• Mozilla China has shown interest to participate in a themed track; e.g. web technologies.
• The city provides a lot of possibilities to explore; cultural, architectural, etc.
• Excellent mass/public transport options.
• Most major airline companies offer direct flights to the airport and traffic costs and time to reach the hotel are minimal (within 1 hour).
• The Red Hat Beijing Engineering office is quite a large one with different size of meeting rooms from 2-person capacity to 40-person capacity, and training area for 50 persons, making it most possible for a very ideal alternative location.
• A group of volunteers from Red Hat Beijing Engineering will be supportive.

Con

• Lack of English proficiency for certain locations/services. Needed information and help will be provided as much as possible by the event organizers. Solutions have already been discussed, like downloaded flyers and instructions in China which can be handed to taxi drivers or desk personnel.

Preregistration

Please leave your name if you want to attend this meeting. After the bidding phase is over, this information will be used for the actual registration.

• ...