Saturday 18^th September

10.30 - 14.30 h. Conference Registration at Xi'an Lotus Hotel

15.00 h. Visit to the Daming Palace National Heritage Park. Transport will be provided from Xi'an Lotus Hotel

18.45 h. Transfer to Yuyangong, Tang Paradise, from Xi'an Lotus Hotel

19:00 h. Official launch of the “Daming Palace and the Tang Dynasty” conference.

Welcome speeches:

• Professor from the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

• Wang Wei, Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

• Dr. Zhou, Director of the Daming Palace National Heritage Par

19.15 h. Key note address by Dame Jessica Rawson, Warden of Merton College, University of Oxford. Exotica at the Tang Court and those of its predecessors

Followed by the Conference Dinner at the Tang Paradise.

Sunday 19^th September

Venue: Danfeng Gate, Daming Palace National Heritage Park

Transfer from Lotus Hotel at 8.10h.

Morning session: Daming Palace, the Tang Dynasty and Chinese Heritage Policy

09.00 h. Opening ceremony by the Professor from the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the Xi'an Administration of Cultural Heritage and Wang Wei from the Institute of Archaeology CASS of China.

09.20 h. Dr Zhou, Director of the Daming Palace National Heritage Park. Introduction to the Daming Palace National Heritage Park Project.

09:45 h. Prof An Jiayao, Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). History of the Daming Palace Archaeology Research

10.15 h. Coffee break

10.30 h. Dr Chris Gosden, Chair of European Archaeology, University of Oxford; and David Jennings, CEO, Oxford Archaeology. Cultural heritage in China: some thoughts from a British perspective.

11.00 h. Ge Chengyong, Heritage Publish Agency. The Value of Da Ming Palace from the Heritage Perspective.

11:30 h. Dr. Stephen Shennan, UCL Institute of Archaeology. Heritage Research at the Institute of Archaeology

12.00 h. – 14.00 h Lunch (Jinhaian Hotel)

Afternoon session: The Tang Dynasty from a world perspective

14.00 h. Du Jinpeng, Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Heritage Park and Archaeology.

14.30 h. Dr James A. Anderson, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. Emperors, Maharajas and Great Kings: Tang-Nanzhao Relations Along the Southern Silk Road.

15.00 h. Dr Albert E. Dien, Stanford University, USA. The Sogdians in Xi'an: The Case of Master Shi (aka Wirkak).

15.30 h. Coffee Break

15.45 h. Prof Helena Hamerow, University Lecturer in European Archaeology (Early Medieval), University of Oxford. Palaces and the Formation of Kingship in Western Europe, c. 600-900.

16.15 h. Dr Simon Thurley, CEO, English Heritage. Understanding how royal palaces worked: The historiography of the Western European Court.

16.45 h. Concluding remarks by Dr Chris Gosden, University of Oxford, UK.

17.00 h. End of conference sessions

18.00 h. Dinner in Yuyangong, a restaurant by the City Lake in Xi'an. Transfer provided from Danfeng Gate.

Monday 20^th September

08.15 h. Meeting point at the lobby of Xi'an Lotus Hotel

Field visits to key heritage sites in Xi'an including:

• UNESCO World Heritage Site 'Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor' with the Terracotta Army;

• The Wild Goose Pagoda,

• Xi'an City Wall,

• and the Stone Tablets Museum.

(Lunch included in the day tour)

18.00 h. Return to Xi'an Lotus Hotel and free evening.