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FUDCon is the Fedora Users and Developers Conference, an opportunity for all who contribute to or use Fedora to meet, learn, plan, and hack. This event is free and is open to everyone. To learn about what a FUDCon is like, you can view a video from the North American FUDCon 2009. Please read FUDCon organization process and understand it thoroughly if you are a event organizing volunteer. If you are responsible for finding a good place, refer to the requirements listed in FUDCon/Organization

Beijing

Dates

23-25 May, 2014

  • Friday: Arrival day, FUDpub
  • Saturday: Keynote speech to all attendees, unconference and/or themed track in small separate rooms
  • Sunday: Half-day hackfests, half-day unconference track (to present hackfest work, etc).

Tentative Agenda

Notice that this is still a draft.

Time Activities Comment
May 23rd
Day Arrival
Night FUDPub
May 24th
Morning keynote & talks
Noon Lunch
Afternoon keynote & talks
May 25th
Morning hackfest/workshop
Noon Lunch
Afternoon unconference

Location

About Beijing

The city

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. All proposed events sites,hotels, restaurants and shopping places are easily accessible by subway. You can see numerous lines at here

Beijing provides full possibilities for foreign visitors to have rich experience in the following ways:

  • Cuisine: Restaurants of different tastes of food from all over the world are available in Beijing. From the most well known restaurants of Quan Ju De Roasting Duck, Dong Lai Shun Instant-boiled Mutton, to popular gourmet street. It's easy for you to find the right one suitable for your budget from 4 dollars/person to 60 dollars/person or above. If you just want a snack or lunch, almost in every street you can find a cheap restaurant which offers all kinds of Chinese food.
  • Art: 798 Art Zone (Cao Chang Di, which is often compared with New York's Greenwich Village or SoHo), The National Centre for the Performing Arts.
  • Famous Sites: The Great Wall, the Forbidden City (the Palace Museum; palace of emperors during the Ming and Qing Dynasty), Tian An Men Square, Mausoleum of Mao Ze Dong, Temple of Heaven (where emperors made visits for annual ceremonies to pray to Heaven for propsperity and good harvest), the Summer Palace, Siheyuan (courtyard houses) and Hutong (alleys).
  • Entertainment: Some famous bar street are quite easily reachable by subway. 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 25 minutes away is Wudaokao (五道口), this is also a famous area mostly known among students. Yuan Dadu covers an area of 10,000 square meters and provides one of the longest bar streets in Beijing.
  • Shopping: Xiu Shui Street (Silk Street) is quite a hot spot for foreign visitors where you could buy silk, pearl, Chinaware, handicrafts and clothes at a low price. The other well know shopping areas are Xi Dan and Dong Dan, respectively on the east and west side of the famous Tian An Men Square.
  • Architecture: This is a city where you could see both traditional architecture of imperial China and much more modern architectural forms.

Open Source Communities and Universities

There are different kinds of open source communities located here in Beijing. Along them there are Beijing GNU/Linux User Group (aka BLUG for short), Beijing GNOME User Group(BJGUG), China Firefox Community and so on.

There are different kinds of open source activities here, too. Among them are Software Freedom Day every year, BLUG monthly meetup, PyCon, and so on. As for local Fedora community, we have successfully held FAD in 2011, Release Parties for Fedora release 18--20. We have many cooperatoin with other communities. For example, we held "The unity of open source community (Fedora, Ubuntu and openSUSE)" with BJGUG, Ubuntu community, and openSUSE community together on Mar 19, 2013.

Besides, there are a total of over 80 universities located in Beijing. Some of them have Linux related research team, and a lot of them have Linux or open source related leagues and courses, such as TUNA in Tsinghua, OSLUG in GUCAS, and so on. A lot of students here in Beijing are willing to volunteer for open source related activities.

Venue

Beihang University

Beihang University (BUAA for short) is "a multi-disciplined, research-oriented university of engineering science and technology with an emphasis on aeronautic and astronautic engineering" (cited from the homepage). It is located in Haidian district is easily reachable by public transport (Subway Line 10). This option is considered due to the good relationship with local open source communities in Beijing. Discussions about renting classrooms or other co-operation is being discussed.

The New Main Building of Beihang University has different sizes of conference rooms. The biggest meeting hall has 433 seats, and should be adequate for our proposed venue. We might also get some discount for the event.

Detailed venue address: Conference Center at New Main Building of Beihang University, No. 37 XueYuan Road, HaiDian District, Beijing, China.

Prices
  • Conference room for 30p-40p: CNY 1800 per day (CNY 800 with discount)
  • Conference room for 433p: CNY 9000 per day (CNY 2400 with discount)
Links

Reference for food


Reference Links

Major Local Airports

Beijing Capital International Airport (Airport Code: PEK) is the major airport servicing Northern China and Beijing. Airlines from most of major cities in the world can fly to Beijing directly.

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 proposed venues are easily reachable with public transport; several bus stations are around the universities, and they are within walking distance from nearby Subway station.

  • Subway costs are fixed at ¥2 per ride (about $0.30)
  • Taxi cost is calculated per kilometer. starts at ¥13 (includes 3KM). ¥2.3 per additional kilometer.
  • Bus depends on the local or regional bus. Urban bus price is fixed at ¥1. Segmented fare starts at ¥1 within 12 km, and is incremental at ¥0.5 per 5 km thereafter. Discount is offered for traveling with a general transit card (60% discount) or student transit card (80% discount).

Visa Application

We list links here about Chinese visa introduction and application procedure:

We'd like speakers to apply Visa type L (travel visa), since its application is normally easier, and the requirements are loose. For Visa type L, the requirement is EITHER flight ticket and hotel reservation OR an invitation letter.

If things go smoothly, two weeks can be enough, but there will not room for error. It's better to start the application two months before the travel time.

Visa for US Citizens is USD 140.

Invitation Letter

We can provide invitation letter to ease the visa application procedure. If you need an invitation letter, please email your request to the organizers (to Alick Zhao, cc Christopher Meng, Zamir Sun) with the following information:

  • Full name (as on passport)
  • Gender
  • Birthdate (as on passport)
  • Country
  • Passport number

Hotel

Beihang Training Center provides accommodation service and it is quite near (distance of 400 meters) to the conference venue, New Main Building of Beihang. We have reserved 7 standard rooms in the Training Center. The hotel bill will be paid at checkout time. The organizers will book the hotel and pay for the amount during conference days (May 23 to 25, three nights). If you need to stay for more nights, please provide your check in and check out date, and the organizers will try to book the whole stay for you. You need to pay for extra stay yourself. Feel free to ask for help from organizers on fudcon-planning list, or by private mail, or face to face at the conference.

Detailed hotel address: Beihang Training Center Hotel, No. 37 XueYuan Road, HaiDian District, Beijing, China.

A lot of different hotel options of different standards are available.

  • Option 1 Wen Jin Hotel, a 4-star hotel, about 15 minutes' taxi from FUDCon location BUAA, 20 minutes' walk from the Red Hat China Engineering office, 5 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 Beijing Jade Palace Hotel, 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 BUAA.
  • Option 3 BUPT Science and Technology Plaza. The same place with FUDCon option BUPT. Easy to reach by Line 10. 20 minutes' bus to BUAA.
  • Option 4 Beijing Free Comfort Holiday Hotel, known as Yi Hai Hotel before September 2013, easy to reach by Line 13, only 10 minutes' bus to BUAA.
  • Option 5 Yan Shan Hotel, right besides Ren Min University. 5 minutes' walk from Ren Min Da Xue station of Line 4.

Estimated Hotel Costs/night/room

Star Rating Hotel Name Map Reference Price Condition
* 5 star Beijing Jade Palace Hotel Beijing Jade Palace Hotel $110 internet, bathtub & shower(breakfast not included).
* 4 star Wenjin Hotel Wenjin Hotel $77 internet, bathtub & shower (breakfast included, high floor).
* 3 star BUPT Science and Technology Plaza BUPT Science and Technology Plaza $55 internet and shower (breakfast included).
* 3 star Beijing Free Comfort Holiday Hotel Beijing Free Comfort Holiday Hotel $60 internet and shower (breakfast not included).
* 3 star apartment Beijing Yanshan Hotel Beijing Yanshan Hotel $49 to 70 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

Here is the subway map of Beijing, almost 80% of them is completed.

NOTE if you want to see an online version, please refer to: http://inat.fr/metro/beijing/, here is the picture downloaded from INAT:

Easy access to the venue is possible by public transport.

Suggest route:
1. Take Airport Express to 三元桥(Sanyuanqiao)
2. Take Subway Line 10 to 西土城(Xitucheng)
3. Walk about 700 meters to 北京航空航天大学(BUAA, Beihang University)

Internet Capabilities

Wifi connection is available at event venue, cabled internet or wifi is accessible at all hotels.

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).

Costs from Asia and Oceania

  • Tokyo: from $400 (stops at Shenyang,China)
  • Hong Kong: from $210
  • Singapore: from $250
  • Delhi: from $631(stops at Bangkok)
  • Pune: from $730 (2 stops: Delhi, Shanghai)
  • Hanoi: from $310
  • Kuala Lumpur: $240
  • Jakarta: $454
  • Manila: $155
  • Sydney: from $520
  • Brisbane: from $640

Costs from NA and LATAM

  • New York (JFK) : From $1295 or ￥5434
  • Boston (BOS) : From $1333(1 stop) or ￥5757 (1 stop)
  • Washington DC.(IAD) : From $1341 (1 stop) or ￥5346 (2 stops)
  • Seattle (BFI) : From $1484(1 stop) or ￥4814(1 stop)
  • Los Angeles (LAX) : From $1402 (1 stop) or ￥5221 or ￥3957 (1 stop)
  • Vancouver, Canada (YVR) : From $655 or ￥4567

Costs from Europe and Africa

  • Moscow: from €280
  • London: from €491
  • Frankfurt (FRA): from $800
  • Munich (MUC): from $750
  • Berlin: from $750
  • Paris: from €400
  • Madrid: from €390
  • Barcelona: from €390
  • Lisbon: from €440
  • Rome: from €390
  • Budapest: from €360
  • Amsterdam: from $750
  • Brussels: from $770
  • Vienna: from $760

Costs from China

For Chinese citizens it is also possible to come by train. Each train station in Beijing offers good connection with the subway. As mentioned earlier, it is possible to even fly to Tianjin and take the high speed connection to Beijing. This option is in fact also available for Shanghai (high speed train takes about 5:30 hours).

Please keep the table in alphabetical order:

From To Transportation Expense
Guangzhou Beijing Airplane About/From￥1000
Guangzhou Beijing CRH Highspeed Train About￥862, ￥1380, ￥2724
Guangzhou Beijing Train About￥251, ￥441, ￥784, ￥1445
Shanghai Beijing Airplane About ￥1100
Tianjin Beijing Train ￥55 2nd CLASS SEAT
￥66 1st CLASS SEAT
Xi'an Beijing Airplane About/From￥700
Xi'an Beijing Train 2nd class T series: ￥270
1st class Z series: ￥420
Xi'an Beijing High-speed Train ￥520
Yinchuan Beijing Train Train No.T275 ￥270.5
Zhengzhou Beijing Train About ￥90, ￥200, ￥300

Pros and Cons of Proposed Location

Pro

  • Opportunity to grow Open Source and Fedora presence in Asia, especially in China.
  • Possible co-operation with various user groups in Beijing and China, e.g. BJGUG, Beijing LUG, etc. We are discussing co-location with BJGUG people who will host GNOME.Asia 2014. Since GNOME is one major upstream of Fedora, and Fedora is one major distro for GNOME, it can be a great chance for people in both communities to meet face to face.
  • The city provides a lot of possibilities to explore; cultural, history, cuisine, 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).

Con

  • English proficiency is limited 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.
  • Someone has raised concern about Beijing smog. In fact it is highly affected by the weather condition. Generally it is worse in winter, but not so bad in summer. Besides the local government has decided to spend much money in renovation. People can query the latest air quality from various websites or apps for trip guidance. There will be alert in case of harmful haze before 24 hours.

Proposed sponsorship criteria

  • FUDCon team will sponsor local travel, food and accommodation for everyone who is a speaker or hackfest participant
  • Red Hat speakers travelling internationally, talk to your manager for covering the flight expenses. FUDCon team can cover other expenses if needed.
  • Community volunteers (international participants), we have limited budget for covering flight cost. FUDCon team will be choosy about this. FUDCon team will cover other expenses.
  • Community volunteers (within China). FUDCon team will cover flight costs for you if you are a speaker or hackfest participant

Budget Details

FUDCon APAC has been provided a tentative budget of 10000 US Dollars as per

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/famsco/2014-April/001525.html

We are seeking local sponsors for complimenting the budget but for the bidding process, our planning must be limited within this amount. Note that if a Red Hat person comes from some other country, his or her manager will generally fund that travel and that's what we will encourage. Max Spevack has additional discretionary budget in special cases. Community volunteers need funds to be taken out of the FUDCon allotted budget typically.

The following price varies due to price change or possible discount.

# Item Budget Comment
1 Venue $800 Big: 400/2(share)*2(day)=400; Small: 100*2(room)*2(day)=400
2 Travel Sponsorship $5550 foreign 8*600, non-local Chinese 5*150
3 Accommodation Sponsorship $980 7(room)*280(CNY)*3(day)
4 Food & Drinks $1000 lunch only for speakers, volunteers, and organizers
5 T-shirts $1500 300 attendees
6 FUDPub $1500
7 Other Swag $500
99 TOTAL $11830

Preregistration

FUDCon is free and open for everyone to attend.

Registration online before the event is not mandatory, but encouraged to help the organizers to have an idea of the expected number of attendees, and prepare swags accordingly.

The registration system is under construction. We will use the same registration system with GNOME.Asia 2014.


Hackfests/Demos

Hackfest info
Refer to FUDCon hackfest on what is expected from a hackfest


# Session Name Description Owner Pre-requisites

Organizers/Event owners

# Name Location Comment
1 Christopher Meng Beijing, China Lead Coordinator, Event Owner
2 Alick Zhao Beijing, China Main Coordinator
3 Zhenbo Li Harbin, China Coordinator
4 Zamir SUN Shandong, China Main Coordinator
5 Diseng Chengdu, China Coordinator
6 杜宏羽 Beijing, China
7 Caius Chance Brisbane, Australia
8 韦冠楠 Beijing, China
9 Amos.Huang Sichuan, China
10 Bin Li Beijing, China Coordinator from BJGUG
11 Gerard Braad Beijing, China
12 Tong Hui Beijing, China Coordinator from BJGUG / CSDN

Plan Meetings

IRC meetings:

Approval Meeting:

Trac tickets: https://fedorahosted.org/fudcon-planning/query?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&component=FUDCon+Beijing+2014&order=priority&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=type&col=priority&col=milestone&col=component

FAD:

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