The China First Karst Tourism Earth Science Symposium was held in Xingwen County, Sichuan Province, in October 2003. It was organised by the China Tourism Earth Science Research Institute and was attended by 110 delegates, who submitted 65 papers. It was presided over by Anze Chen. The main themes were research on the basic theory and development of karst tourism resources and the feasibility of Xingwen’s application to become a global geopark. The proceedings of the ‘Research on Basic Theory and Development of Karst Tourism Resources’ was published by Seismological Press in 2004.