With great pleasure, we gather in Chengdu, the "Land of Abundance", to welcome the 2nd China-Japan Railway Technology Symposium. As the host of this conference, on behalf of Southwest Jiaotong University, I would like to extend our warmest welcome and most sincere greetings to the professors, experts, young scholars and other participants of the Japanese delegation who have traveled a long way to attend this event!  

We still remember that last midsummer, the first symposium was successfully held in Tokyo, Japan. Scholars from both countries conducted in-depth exchanges on cutting-edge topics such as electrified railways, maglev technology and artificial intelligence, building a solid bridge for China-Japan railway technology cooperation. Today, following this academic appointment, we pass the baton of the conference to Chengdu - a city that is not only the birthplace of the ancient Shu civilization, but also a highland for China's rail transit technology innovation. From the Chengdu-Dujiangyan High-speed Railway pioneering China's suburban railway development to the convergence of the "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed railway network here, the development footprint of Chengdu's rail transit is a vivid epitome of the rapid progress of China's railway technology.