2012 - China and FIP Amsterdam

It was an earlier than usual start this morning; we were off to the Dazu Rock Carvings made up of five clusters of carvings dating from the ninth to the 13 th centuries. We visited the Baodingshan Rock Carving situated 15 km east of Dazu, which is 127km west of Chongqing (about 2 hrs of driving). We were so early in fact, that we had to miss the usual breakfast.   Never fear though, our trusty leader had arranged for the hotel to package a breakfast for us which we ate not long after we left Chongqing. The Carvings are on a grand scale, have a notable aesthetic quality, are very diverse in both secular and religious subject matter and provide evidence of the amicable combination of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. On the 4 th December 1999, the Dazu Rock Carvings were declared UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage. The inscription on the List confirms the “exceptional and universal value of a cultural or natural site which requires protection for the benefit of all humanity”. ...

On the second day of the Seminar there were four presentations – all in Chinese, therefore the four invited guests were excused from attending.  We visited the displays instead. At a brief MEPS meeting held on Wed 26 Sep 12, just before the MEPS-Biochem Signing Ceremony, it was agreed that a small MEPS working group, consisting of Jane, Wendy and Sylvain, should convene on Fri morning whilst the Seminar continued in Chinese. Once again, Zheng-yu used his exceptional organizational skills to secure a small conference room for us to meet to discuss Disaster Response Management Planning. It is clear that there is a need for information on preparing individual pharmacists in all areas of practice to manage in their situation when an emergency strikes. Guidelines are required to help national authorities and member organisations develop comprehensive national plans. They need to consider the response from a more global point of view (community, hospital, industry etc.) related to an int...