Attending EMNLP’2025
The 2025 Conference on EMNLP was held in Suzhou, China from November 4 – 9’2025 and I was fortunate enough to attend it (both by getting a paper accepted there and getting sufficient funding). This would be my first time attending a conference.
I flew from Hyderabad on 1st November and my plan was to stay in Shanghai for one day, do some local sightseeing and then take a train to Suzhou on 4th. This was the first time I was travelling internationally and I was very excited. A week prior to this, we (IIIT-H Football Team) received an invite to participate in the GITAM (a local college in Hyderabad) football tournament and it was initially planned to take place on 29th - 31st. This was a perfect plan for me, because the tournament would have ended on 31st and I could take some nice rest before leaving for EMNLP. But due to rain, the tournament got postponed to 31st and 1st Nov. So, we actually ended up playing 3 back to back games on 1st Nov and later that night I boarded my flight. We won the tournament :) and this was IIIT’s first win outside its own tournament in the past 9 years if I am not wrong. This is probably one of the best days I have ever had, and it was such a fulfilling moment. The entire tournament is a blog of its own, and I am not sure if I will ever write it, but I do plan to write something about football and will probably add it there.
IIIT-H's football team with the trophy
I was flying with Cathay Pacific for my whole trip, and their service was very nice; they offer very good meals on the flight, and the staff is also very helpful. I had a 9-hour layover at the Hong Kong International Airport, and it passed by fairly quickly. It was the biggest airport I had ever seen. It is also very well maintained; there are workspaces to work on at the terminal gates, sleeping chairs, video games, etc.
I landed in Shanghai on 2nd November around 9 pm. The public transportation in China is very well-connected, maintained, and easy to use. So I took the subway from the airport to the nearest station to my hotel, and from there walked because it was just around 500m. The weather felt very nice because it was cold. I had been living in Hyderabad for the past 4 years, and it is always hot there, so this felt particularly refreshing. I was quite amused after walking out of the subway. Huge buildings all around, and very clean environment. Also, the air quality in China is very good, for my entire stay I didn’t have to take any medication of my dust allergies. I was quite tired from the travel, so I directly went to sleep in my hotel and woke up around afternoon the next day.
The next day, I roamed around the city. I visited Zhapu Road, Xinghui Centre, Yuyuan Old Street, The Bund and the Yu Garden. All these places are very close to each other. You will find a lot of bicycles placed at the footpath at every 100-150m distance, and you can just scan those cycles on Alipay and use them, drop them at any other location. It is very convenient and cheap. Also, the roads are very wide and there are dedicated lanes for bicycles and scooters, so there are no issues with safety as well.
Next day, I travelled to Suzhou through the Manglev high speed train. The train runs on an average speed of over 300 kmph and I reached Suzhou in less than 30mins. Suzhou is a much quiet city/town than Shanghai. It felt very peaceful living there for the whole week. EMNLP 2025 was the biggest event hosted by ACL till date (don’t qoute me on that). It took place at the International Expo Center in Suzhou and the venue was huge. The conference took place only in 2/3 sections of the whole venue and still felt like a big event. The venue was right next to the Jinji Lake and you could take a walk riverside during the day or in the evening once the conference for that day was over. I was staying fairly close to the venue, so every day I used to just walk to conference. Suzhou has a very rich cultural and historical background and it is reflected in the tourist spots in/near the town. I visited PingJiang Street, Tiger Hills, and Zhouzhang water town and I visited these places with some wonderful people whom I hope to see again and always be connected with.
The only major issue which I faced during my stay in China was food. I have a dietary restriction where I cannot eat beef and it was hard to find vegetarian/chicken based food items. And I personally don’t prefer eating a lot of sea food. But if you are someone who loves different kinds of food and sea food, China is the place to be. I have never seen so much variety in sea food.
The conference in itself was a great event. I met a lot of people and made so many new friends. I went out with a random group of people for sightseeing a couple of times and had some wonderful conversations. I also got to know a lot about current research which is going on in academia. I much needed this experience because I also got a lot of prespective about research which would help me make the decision of weather I want to pursue a PhD. I think the most wonderful part of being a researcher/doing a PhD is that if you do well, you get to go so many places which otherwise would have been so difficult or impossible to visit. You meet so many people, exchange ideas and collaborate. Basically, you become a world citizen. You get to know so much more about so many more cultures.
All in all, I had an incredible experience visting these cities in China, and I hope to come back to this country because I love the people, culture and landmass.
Some of the posters (and works) which caught my eye:
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