On July 29th, Professor Baotian Pan, vice President of Lanzhou University, Professor Xiangmin Zheng from East China Normal University, Professor Shengtian Yang, vice President of Guizhou Normal University attended the opening ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by Zhenghu Shen,secretary of the Party Committee of the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Professor Nai’ang Wang, director of the Center for Glacier and Desert Research, introduced the route, schedule and requirements in this field study. After the ceremony, all teachers and students set out for the field study.
To promote exchanges and cooperation, students from 36 universities were divided into 12 groups. The content of the field study is very rich and diverse. Participants visited the Lajia disaster remains, ancient lakeshore of Qinghai Lake, different vegetation and soil types in Dabanshan and Lenglongling, the glacier erosion and deposition geomorphology of Gangshka Glacier, Danxia landform of Benkang village and Hongshanwan landform of Zhangye city and the Badain Jaran Desert. Teachers and students conducted discussions on every study area, includingpossible causes of Lajia disaster remains, the method of estimating paleo-precipitation on the investigation on ancient lakeshores, the feature of the truth Danxia landform and the origin mystery of the high dunes and lakes in the Badain Jaran Desert, etc.
After the field study, the 12 teams reported and communicated with each other from the aspects of fieldwork methods, main findings, existing problems and achievements. Hongya Wang from Peking University, Liuchi Luo from National Kaohsiung Normal University, Feng Li from the Chinese University of Hong Kong as judges made comments on every report and guided students to show more professional content. In the end, Professor Yongqiu Wu from Beijing Normal University made a speech to conclude the joint field study.
Through this field study, all the teachers and students have experienced the profound historical and cultural heritage of northwestern China. They also have experienced the magnificent natural scenery and colorful ethnic customs along with the field study, which has enhancedmutualunderstanding and friendship and improved the spatial thinking and professional ability to discover geography issues.
