It is my great pleasure and deep honor to invite you to the 8th congress of the Asian Pacific Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (APFSSH), which will be held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from the 13th to 15th of November, 2009. This will be a combined conference of the 8th APFSSH and the 4th congress of the Asian Pacific Federation of Societies for Hand Therapist (APFSHT).

Beside the main congress, the pre-congress will be a brachial plexus injury (BPI) symposium at Chang Gung memorial hospital, Linko, Taiwan, from 10th to 11th of November, 2009. With these arrangements within one week, we wish to take this good opportunity to share knowledge and experience with our participants as much as we can.

Kaohsiung is the southern capital city of Taiwan. This is a sunny harbor city with lots of fun, historical buildings, scenic spots, night markets, and most important; the southern hospitality. The official hotel recommended for this conference is the skyscraper landmark: the ‘Splendor” hotel in the center of downtown Kaohsiung, which is very convenient for shopping, sightseeing, with reasonable charge. This hotel is also the venue for welcome reception (November 12, 2009) and Taiwanese banquet night (November 14, 2009).

As we already have more than 500 participants registered for this combined APFSSH / APFSHT conference, the organizing committee decided to choose “E-DA Hospital conference center” as the congress venue. This conference center may accommodate more than 1,500 participants. We have regular shuttle bus service that run from the “Splendor” hotel to the E-DA Hospital conference center. The frequency of the bus schedule is one bus / 10 to 15 minutes. It will take 25 to 30 minutes from the “Splendor” hotel to the congress venue. We also arrange shuttle bus service from the airport / high speed train station to the hotel and congress venue.

More than 80 international well known speakers from Europe, USA, and Asia-Pacific countries will be presenting at this conference. We will try our utmost efforts to make a balanced academic and social program for the participants with wide varieties of interests.

As the congress chairman, I sincerely hope that you will be happy staying with us, and your trip to Kaohsiung will be the most valuable and memorable one. I am looking forward to welcome you in Kaohsiung, November 2009.

Yuan-Kun Tu