The expedition, widely supported by Chinese environmentalists, historians and hydraulic specialists, plans to carry out a series of scientific and cultural investigations along the route.

Wu Shiguang, expedition leader, says that the team will attemptto piece together the history of the Chinese people's expedition along the "Silk Road".

The "Silk Road", one of the world's most attractive explorationsites, which passes through Tianshui, Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Turpan and Urumqi, was the most important commercial route linking prosperous central China with foreign countries in central Asia, and, according to archaeologists, it is a treasure drove of cultural relics and of China's heritage.

Two additional expeditionary teams plan to explore the Lop Nur area and the desert near the Altun mountains later this year.

Wu said he hopes that the team will rewrite the expeditionary history originally written by western explorers so that the Chinese people can learn more about the "Silk Road" and about the need to protect it.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2003)