4th International Forum on Rheumatoid Arthritis: Great Times Near the Great Wall

International Forum on Rheumatoid Arthritis (IFRA), an incredible meeting. Professor Zhan-guo Li, Professor of Medicine at Peking University and President of the Asia Pacifi c League Against Rheumatism, and his co-chairs, Professor Lars Klareskog, Professor of Rheumatology, Karolinska Institutet, and Professor Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Professor of Medicine, University of Tokyo, organized the meeting. Th ey did a terrifi c job and created a program to showcase the excitement and dynamism of both modern China and modern rheumatology. Professor Li was a great host as hundreds of Chinese rheumatologists packed the Beijing Xinyuan Hotel to hear lectures by rheumatologists from China as well as invited speakers from around the world. I have attended few meetings where the energy was so high and the eagerness to learn so great. While most of the international speakers had previously visited Beijing, the meeting was my fi rst trip to China. To say the least, I was surprised by the city’s modernity. Growing up in a very frosty time of the Cold War, China – usually called Red China or Communist China in the United States – was very much a forbidden country until Nixon thawed relationships with secret diplomacy, a ping-pong tournament and a memorable visit in 1972. I remain uncertain about the city’s name because, during my lifetime, Beijing has also been called both Peking and Peiping. Th e images I have of modern China come mostly from the telecasts of the 2008 Olympics, although the NBC commentators seemed mostly interested in street food as if restaurants did not exist. I had few preconceived ideas of the real Beijing as opposed to the attractions I read about in 1000 Places to See Before You Die. While China is a very old country, Beijing is a very new city. I would say that Beijing has the ambience of a boom town – but boom town is a misnomer for a megalopolis that has a population of about 20 million people and a land area of 6,500 square miles. About half the size of Belgium, Beijing makes Chicago look like a quaint little village with its neighborhoods of row houses. High-rise apartments and offi ce buildings are everywhere as if the only direction to grow is up. Alas, a dense haze often covers the landscape, blotting the outline of some beautiful buildings and preventing appreciation of the sheer magnitude of the construction that has marked the explosive growth of Beijing in recent years. Th roughout the city, wide avenues and highways are dense with cars at all hours. Driving around for sightseeing, I was gratifi ed (and indeed mystifi ed) to see many cars with Buick on the name plate. Indeed, I probably saw more Buicks in Beijing than I do in Durham, North Carolina. Th ere used to be an advert that said ‘Th is is not your father’s Buick.’ I guess in China the advert says ‘Th is is not your American’s Buick.’ Th at would be true since the car is the product of GM Shanghai, a joint venture of General Motors and CDAI. Actually, GM sells more cars in China than in the United States. Volkswagens, Hyundais and Audi are also frequent vehicles and far outnumber the bicycles and scooters I was expecting. As a tourist attraction, the ultra-modern Birds Nest Olympics stadium with its gleaming lattice shell designed by Swiss architects now competes for attention with the ancient Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Th e Egg is another landmark and a great building. For those who delight in stirring architecture, I recommend Beijing Airport. Airports are not usual venues for sightseers since they call forth memories of long lines at immigration, canceled fl ights and lost luggage. Nevertheless, Beijing Airport is a spectacular structure that is fi lled with light from an undulating ceiling of windows. Th e outside roof is painted red, the Chinese symbol for good luck. If you go to Beijing, you of course visit the airport, perhaps discombobulated by the time-zone change. My recommendation is to rouse yourself awake and look at the building and not just stumble through it. Like China, rheumatology research is experiencing a boom and is on the go. As talks at the IFRA demonstrated clearly, modern science moves with incredible speed and is producing voluminous data at a dizzying pace. Th e © 2010 BioMed Central Ltd 4th International Forum on Rheumatoid Arthritis: Great Times Near the Great Wall