Madam Hu Qiheng presented Werner Zorn (second from the right), Laurence Landweb and Stephen Wolf with the Souvenir

　　Seminar on Sino-German IT innovative cooperation partnership was held in the Hasso-Plattner-Institute of University Potsdam from Sep. 18th to 19th, 2007. The seminar celebrated specially the 20th anniversary of Internet cooperation between China and Germany. German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brandenburg state governor, the mayor of Potsdam, and about 20 experts and scholars from all over the world about 20 experts and scholars attended the meeting.

　　Two landmark achievements resulted from the early Internet cooperation between China and Germany: sending of the first email between China and Germany, registration and operation of the national top level domain name .CN. The experts present at the Seminar reviewed the history of connecting Internet in China to international network and showed their gratification for the right choice made then, in particular their heartfelt admiration for the marvelous achievements that Internet in China had made.

　　During the two-day seminar, Internet pioneers and experts from all over the world discussed the current situation and future development of Internet in China as well as the form of international cooperation in terms of Internet technology, etc.

　　German Foreign Minister Deutsche Welle in his speech gave a high appraisal to the technological and educational cooperation between China and Germany in the last twenty years. He said that besides the cooperation in terms of politics and economy, the two parties should also strengthen the cooperation on science and technology as well as on culture in order to achieve a win-win situation.

　　Madam Hu Qiheng read the thanks letter as a representative of the China Internet Community and presented commemorate medals to the experts who once helped China in its early period for Internet development, among whom Werner Zorn, Laurence Landweb and Stephen Wolf stood out as their representatives. Madam Hu said: today Internet is playing a huge role in the social and economic development of China, and we attribute this to the pioneers who made tremendous contributions to the development of Internet in China, especially to the support and help of our overseas friends.

　　Prof. Zorn expressed his hope that the young generation of IT professionals in both countries could remember the friendly cooperation in the early history of development and maintain this friendly cooperation links in the long term.

　　On Sep 20, 1987 with the help of the Research Group led by Prof. Werner Zorn, China succeeded in sending its first email to Germany. This "landmark" also signified China's first attempt to connect with international Internet.

　　Another "landmark" is the registration and operation of CN national TLD name. On Nov. 28 1990, Prof. Wang Yunfeng and Prof. Werner Zorn registered China's own international TLD name ".CN". But back then the CN domain name server was set in University Karlsruhe. In 1994 China was connected fully with the international internet and with the help of Qian Tianbai and University Karlsruhe, the Computer Network Information Center under Chinese Academy of Sciences completed the installation of the CN TLD name server on May 21 that year, which ended the history of TLD name server being kept abroad. At present, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) is responsible for the operation and management of .CN national TLD name server.

　　When the CN server first settled in China, there were only several CN domain names. In 2007, the registration of CN TLD names has reached 6.15 million. .CN has become the second largest national level TLD name, after only .DE of Germany, and risen to the mainstream domain name of China. The CN domain name server has set 7 nodes at home and abroad together with the emergency centers, which guarantee the stable and efficient services of the domain name system that the development of Internet requires.