Chinese scientists will explore and research the center of the severely cold Hoh Xil mountain area in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau later this year, officials with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said Wednesday.

This will be the first time that anyone traverses the heart of the Hoh Xil mountain area, which is an average of 5,300 meters above sea level.

Situated on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, Hoh Xil is high and frigid, officials said.

"Although Chinese scientists have explored the Qinghai-Tibet plateau for decades, not even a single scientific exploration team has set foot in the 20,000-sq-km-plus central area of Hoh Xil as the plateau is too vast for our scientific exploration to cover," said Sun Honglie, an academician of the CAS and director for the exploration.

He said that although scientists have conducted research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is more than 2.4 million square kilometers in area, there is still very little known about the area, including the Hoh Xil.

He said that scientists want to find out whether Hoh Xil is one of the most arid and coldest places in the world.

According to CAS officials, the team will start out from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and reach the destination of Golmud in Qinghai by way of several other places including the Hoh Xil Lake.

Scientists will traverse various climate zones and observe volcanoes, thermal springs, plateau karst, glaciers, frozen earth and other geomorphological structures.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2005)