Chinese scientists will conduct the country's first scientific survey of the no-man zone in northwest Qiangtang, Tibet.

A survey team will leave Beijing soon to the zone, according to the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

The survey will focus on saline biology resources, saline, saline biology resources, ecosystem, terrestrial heat resources, terrestrial heat mineral resources and so on.

The team will travel about 8,000 kilometers. The survey will cover an area of 100,000 square kilometers and be completed in one and a half months.

North Qiangtang is 5,000 meters above sea level on average. The air there is thin and short of oxygen. Natural conditions are harsh.

From the beginning of the 18th century to 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded, many foreign explorers tried to enter this region, but most of them ended in failure.

After 1949, Chinese scientists reached the east side and the west side of the Qiangtagng area and Hoh Xil area, northeast Qiangtang. But northwest Qiangtang, with an area of 280,000 square kilometers, remains a no-man zone.

With a network of mires and lakes, the zone is rich in salt-related mineral resources and saline biology resources. Tibet antelopes, a species under national first-class protection, reproduce offspring here.

(Xinhua 04/25/2001)