From Prof Jian-yu Lu: The 2008 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) will be held in the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC), Beijing, China, from November 2-5, 2008. This will be the first time the IUS goes to Beijing, the capital of China. Beijing is a city of a long history and a great culture. It has served as the capital of China for long periods of times. Therefore, Beijing will be a great tourist attraction for the conference attendees and their guests besides the technical program. As we know, the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics will be held in Beijing in August and September 2008, respectively. Beijing is preparing for this event by building and improving a lot of infrastructure and cleaning up the environment, and is welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors. Thus, Beijing will become more beautiful after the Olympics. The 2008 IEEE IUS will take advantage of the improved transportation and vastly increased hotel capacity of Beijing after the Olympics. The BICC is located within the Olympic Complex and thus will be convenient for the conference attendees to visit the complex. The 2008 IEEE IUS will also bring together more closely the ultrasonics communities around the world with the communities of China and East Asia to further the research and development of ultrasonics theories and applications. The 2008 IEEE IUS is expected to be another success in the history of this annual conference that started in the early 1960s and has grown to have more than 1000 attendees in recent years. To get a bird's eye view of Beijing, please click the icon below and visit our mini photo gallery.