Cities are the beautiful homeland of human beings. Urbanisation and industrialisation promote the development of cities. More and more people are coming to cities to live, work and enjoy city life. Every citizen and professional planner, therefore, has a responsibility to create cities which can be developed in a sustainable way and which can, at the same time, also safeguard their own homeland. As one of the regions with the most rapid development of urbanisation in the world, China has accumulated precious experience in regard to sustainable development. Wuhan, located in the centre of China, is in economic and geological terms, the core city of Central China. The Yangtze River, the longest river in China converges with the Han River, its biggest tributary, within the City Central Area and the two, together, divide the city into the three townships of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang. Densely endowed with many lakes and the most charming riverside and lake shores in China, Wuhan, as a consequence, has been crowned with the nomenclature ”A City with Numerous Lakes”. Since the reform and new beginning, we have striven very hard to perfect our urban environment and urban living conditions and, at the same time, build energy-saving and environmental friendly cities. We have, indeed, achieved much and made remarkable progress. We also feel proud of the rapid and beneficial development of Wuhan City. This year, with the vigorous and strong support of the International Society of City and Regional Planners, the Urban Planning Society of China and the People's Government of Wuhan City we are happy to support this Congress. We feel deeply honoured to have such an opportunity.

The 2011 Congress is themed on the topic “Liveable Cities: Urbanising World. Meeting the challenge”, which will necessarily draw attention once again to the issue of  global sustainable development and focus on the urbanisation issue as another milestone along the way to making the world a better place in which to live.

I would sincerely like to extend this invitation to you all on behalf of all Wuhan citizens; your participation will be the honour of Wuhan; your penetrating judgment, researches and practical experiences will help promote better Local, Regional, National and Global understanding of developing major planning issues.

We will be expecting you.

Tang Liangzhi
Mayor of Wuhan City