Being jointly organized by Eclipse-City and the Jiayuguan local municipality, the First International Solar Eclipse Summit - InterSoles 1 took place in Jiayuguan city, in China’s Northwestern Gansu province on 31^st July, 2008, just one day before the eclipse day on August 1^st.
The summit was held in the multi-functional conference hall at Jiugang Hotel which is recognized as the leading hotel in the Jiayuguan region. Being characterized as a meeting point for bringing together all eclipse enthusiasts who would like to enjoy the eclipse and also know more around the eclipse event, 4 international eclipse experts and 2 Chinese astronomical scientists gave speeches and presentations during the conference. Major topics compassed eclipse astronomy, total solar eclipse photography, online eclipse mapping techniques, Chinese eclipse history and others. Over 200 international guests from all over the world -countries like USA, Germany, France, China, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and Japan, etc- attended the summit and 10 media associations of both national and local scale participated at the conference.

On July 31^st, the First International Solar Eclipse Summit was officially inaugurated by the Vice-Secretary of the Jiayuguan Municipal Committee Mr. Wan Zegang at 2 pm in the multi-functional conference hall at Jiugang Hotel. The Deputy Director of the Beijing Planetarium, General Secretary of the Beijing Astronomical Society, Mr. Jing Hairong, the Vice General Director of the Gansu Tourism Bureau, Mrs. Zhang Shouxin, and the General Director of the Jiayuguan Tourism Bureau, Mr. Li Yong also attended the summit as special guests. In front of the 200 international participants and more than 10 media associations, the Managing Director of Eclipse-City, Mr. Federico Avellán Borgrmeyer opened the summit firstly with a speech on eclipse observation and eclipse tourism. With the title of Discovering the World with Eclipse-City, Mr. Avellán Borgmeyer first introduced the history of Eclipse-City as the leading company in eclipse event management and organization and then outlooked the upcoming total solar eclipse in 2008.
After Mr. Avellán Borgmeyer's speech, Mr. Sun Xiaochun from the Institude for the History of Natural Science spoke about the thousand year long history of solar eclipse observation in ancient China. Starting from the earliest record of the eclipse in China, through different explanations of the eclipse like celestial dog, to the prediction and application of the eclipse phenomena, Mr. Sun presented to the audiences a mysterious picture of the solar eclipse in the ancient Chinese history. Afterward, two experienced eclipse experts from Europe Mr. Xavier Jubier and Mr. Stephan Heinsius both presented their lastest findings and knowledge on eclipse observation respectively. Mr. Jubier’s report was generally focussed on the techniques of web-based solar eclipse mapping and Mr. Heinsius introduced the astronomical background of the eclipse phenomena and the relationships between different stars during and around an eclipse time. After this, another Chinese eclipse scientist from the National Observatory, Mr. Yan Yihua gave his scientific report on Solar Activities and Their Influence to Space Environment. Finally, Mr. Mike Simmons, the founder and President of Astronomers Without Borders shared his exciting experience about doing and organizing eclipse observation in different parts of the world. All participants were amazed by Mike’s personal experience and understood again, that an eclipse can bring people together no matter where they come from.

In total, four hours of speeches and presentations by six eclipse scientists and experts gave the audience an inside introduction to eclipses and other eclipse-related astronomical phenomenon. It helped the eclipse interested travellers to get gather knowledge and information about eclipse and astronomy especially just one day before the total solar eclipse appeared.