Dear Colleagues, I’ll have a few more e-mail introductions in the next few days as the new members send me their self-introductions. Today I hope you will join me in welcoming XU Chun (otto.xu.chun@gmail.com ), who writes: I am currently a MA History student at the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London, writing my degree dissertation on the topic of bureaucratic communication and information order of the Mongol Empire in China. My interests are focused mainly in the area of environmental history and history of communication, particularly of Yuan and other conquest/northern dynasties in China. I am also interested in cultures and languages of the Mongols and the Turkic peoples. Yours truly, Michael