The third Chinese Peptide Symposium, held in Beijing, China on June 13-17, 1994, attracted 156 delegates representing 11 countries. Nobel Laureate Professor Bruce R. Merrifield was among the 51 international participants, which included many other eminent peptide scientists. Our goal for CPS-94 was to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, cooperation and friendship between the international and Chinese scientific communities, and I believe this goal was met. The program consisted of 10 sessions, with 43 oral and 42 poster presentations. Topics included synthetic methods, molecular diversity and peptide library, design of neuroactive and other active peptides, conformation and protein modeling, peptide immunology and challenging problems in peptides. There were 75 articles selected for publication in these proceedings. CPS-94 was hosted by the Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Beijing Medical University. Professor James Tam, Professor Meng-shen Cai and I were honored to serve as Vice-chairmen and Chairperson, respectively, as recommended by the Program Committee of the CPS-92. The enthusiastic cooperation and excellent contributions were gratifying, and the active response of the invited speakers guaranteed the success of the symposium. The presentations were of excellent caliber and represented the most current and significant aspects of peptide science.