·November 3, 1999: BGI received a visit from Dr. Harold Varmus, the Director of National Institutes of Health, U.S.

· July 29, 2002: Ann M. Venman, the US Department of Agriculture Secretary and two Vice-Secretaries visited BGI, and gave a high evaluation of the achievements of BGI. Dr. Zhu Chen, the Vice-President of CAS, Dr. Le Kang, the Director of the Ministry of Biology, and Dr. Huanming Yang, the Director of BGI, accompanied them.

 · April 2004: During their visit to China from April 4-6, Philippe Busquin, a Member of the European Scientific Research Committee, Ivan Capouet, the Director of the European Administration Department, Jacques Metthey, the Chief Secretary of the European Scientific Research Committee, and Jurgen Sanders, the Science and Technology Counselor of European Committee in China, took the opportunity to tour BGI. Dr. Huanming Yang, the Director of BGI, presented BGI’s work in progress and the cooperative programs underway between the scientists at BGI and the European Scientific Committee.

·July 24, 2001: Geneviève Berger, the Director General of Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, and Antoine Mynard, attaché of the Science and Technology Office of the Embassy of France, visited BGI. Lili Zhang, a BGI Project Specialist, accompanied them during their visit. 

·July 1, 2001: BGI hosted Rongyi Mu, the President of the Korean Economic Institute of Technology Business, Runmo Ju, the Director of Korean Institute of Ultra-delicate Biological Separation Technology, and Taixuan Pu, Associate Professor of the Korean Chemical Engineering University.They were accompanied by Yuanguang Li, the Director of the Marine Biochemical Engineering Institute, Zhiguo Su, the Associate Director of the Chemical Metallurgy Institute of CAS, and Zhu’an Cao, Professor of the Chemical Engineering Faculty of Tsinghua University. 

·December 9, 2005: BGI was visited by several Technology Representatives from the Republic of Cuba, including Luis A. Barreras, first secretary of the Science and Technology Office, Beatriz Marcheco Teruel, Director of National Centre of Medical Genetics, and Esther Perez Alvarez, head of Quality Control of National Centre of Medical Genetics. They were hosted by Huanming Yang, Director of BGI, Dr. Daqing Cai, and Dr. Caiping Wang. During their meeting, the two sides exchanged views on biological research areas of shared interest and expressed their wishes to carry out further collaboration in the fields of genomics research. The Cuban guests highly praised the achievements BGI had made over the past six years.

·August 25, 2004: Korn Thapparansi, the Thailand Secretary of Science and Technology, and other Technology Representati