Nearly 200 guests arrived at the HPI to celebrate the two-day festivities. It was held to commemorate both the tele-teaching bridge - originally established between Germany and China in 2002 - and China's connection to the Internet twenty years ago, in which Werner Zorn, now a professor at HPI, played a crucial role. The five-year-old collaboration was launched when the current HPI Director, Prof. Meinel, was working as Professor of Computer Science at Germany's University of Trier.

The tele-teaching collaboration between the HPI and BJUT's College of Computer Science is also to be expanded to include additional lecture courses and other departments of the University in the future. HPI scientists will travel to the Beijing to certify examinations of those taking part in the online lectures from Potsdam. The lectures, which are given in English, are public domain and can be accessed from the tele-teaching platform www.tele-task.de
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The agreement ensures that the partner universities in Germany and China will admit each other's very best graduates to study for dissertation projects. In addition, consensus was reached on expanding joint research and academic activities.

Germany's foreign minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the State of Brandenburg's minister president Matthias Platzeck both gave speeches at the event. Dr. Steinmeier expressed his hope that this academic foundation might further cooperation between the two countries. He said he viewed the cooperation between the HPI and Beijing Tech as an important contribution, not only to technological progress, but also to international understanding.