In order to save time for scientific investigations, the CBCGDF scientific expedition team plans to advance the troops in Ge’ermu, to fully communicate with the staff of the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve, afterwards, with the assistance of the staff of the reserve, the materials and daily necessities required for the scientific investigation will be purchased nearby, and all necessary preparations will be made for the expedition in the no man's land.
On January 11th, a team of people, including the team member Zhang Xiaofei, who is from CBCGDF, had already flown to Ge'ermu. Ge’ermu is located in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The area is composed of two unconnected areas in the central and southern parts of the Qaidam Basin and the Tanggula Mountain area, with an average elevation of 2,780 meters. From here, you can cross the Kunlun Mountain Pass and enter the Hoh Xil no man's land in the more central part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
According to the tasks of this scientific investigation, the materials that need to be prepared in the early stage mainly include: the materials used in the on-site inspection, the necessities for the life of all the expedition members after entering the no man’s land for several days; the vehicles that need to be rented into the no man’s land. Among them, in order to investigate the sandstorms that occurred frequently in the coastal areas of Zhuonai Lake in recent years, the team needs to lay out several large sand dust sampling samples on the current icing surface and its downstream direction of Zhuonai Lake. Also, to fix them in a long term and collect data. According to the understanding of the advance team members, it is more suitable to use a kind of local production of these materials. It is a kind of black eight-needle covering net.
On the 12th, Zhang Xiaofei and the staff of the Hoh Xil Reserve in the market town of Ge’ermu purchased a total of 6,000 square meters black eight-needle covering net and batch of steel brazing used to fix them. They are probably the largest batch of materials prepared for this scientific expedition. In addition, a series of materials such as the signboard for the sandstorm observation point, the iron rod used for fixing the infrared camera, the maintenance of the standby generator, and the warming equipment required by the team members for the extremely cold weather are also timely and fully purchased and prepared.
While the advance team was busying, other team members from Beijing, Chengdu and other place also arrived in Ge’ermu. In the early morning of the 13th, Dr. Lu, the head of the Zhuonai Lake expedition team, also departed from Beijing, flew to Xining City, Qinghai Province, and then went to Ge’ermu. The most important preparation task for this day was to overhaul all the vehicles rented by the team, put the vehicles in place, and put all the materials used for the expedition in the car, and at the same time complete the procurement of daily necessities. What a busy day! It was not until the evening of the 13th that the team members and the staff of the relevant department of Hoh Xil were still busy, putting all the well-prepared materials in the car one by one, even didn’t eat dinner!
Such a great effort to prepare enough supplies is because in the next few days, the scientific expedition of the plateau no man's land will face quite difficult conditions, and the climate of the plateau will change at any time. "From the beginning of the national road, the road is muddy," "There are large and small pools, deep and shallow silt pits, and wide or narrow rivers. They are all obstacles." The members of the Zhuonai Lake scientific expedition team described their feelings along the way after entering the no man's land last summer. At that time, they experienced four vehicle collapses, crossed two large rivers, and trudged in a scary hail, marching 140 kilometers in 13 hours, and finally arrived at the Zhuonai Lake Protection Station in the middle of the night.
"As the saying goes, after the Laba Festival is the Spring Festival, the Zhuonai Lake scientific expedition team finally completed all the material procurement and preparation work needed to work in the field on the Laba Festival." On the evening of the 13th, Dr. Lu thanks to all the hard work of the team members, and revealed that the next morning, the expedition team and the staff of the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve Administration will hold a simple pre-departure meeting, and then proceeded to the Kunlun Mountain Pass, thus going deep into the Sonam Dajie Conservation Station, Budongquan protection station until reach the destination of Zhuonai Lake protection station.
On the morning of January 14, vehicles carrying scientific materials and living materials, as well as vehicles carrying people, were ready. The expedition team took a simple photo at the Protected Area’s relevant department and officially proceeded from Ge’ermu to the uninhabited area of Hoh Xil. Wish them would have a pleasant journey!
(Photo credit: members of the expedition team)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/7322.html