In 1951, China organized the first large-scale expedition in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau region to provide a better scientific basis for economic and cultural development of the area.

This was also the first comprehensive expedition to inspect natural resources in China. The country approved the establishment of the “Comprehensive Investigation Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences” at the end of 1955, to undertake comprehensive investigation of natural conditions and natural resources.

The committee led a series of thorough investigations, which raised China’s natural resource research from a piecemeal and decentralized state to a comprehensive level and laid the foundation for the formation and development of China’s resource science.