Female Scientists Stand at the Heart of the Silk Road Economic Belt

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Xinjiang, located at the core of the Silk Road Economic Belt, is an important window for opening up to the West and plays an important role in the Belt and Road. Since 2004, Yang Zhaoping of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has had a strong desire to "connect Xinjiang connecting the world ". For 20 years, she has been striving for this goal. As the chief scientist, Professor Yang Zhaoping has established "Xinjiang Tourism Academy" and "Xinjiang Digital Heritage and Smart Tourism Engineering Technology Research Center", successfully applied for the "Xinjiang Tianshan" World Natural Heritage, and built a multilingual information service platform for Silk Road digital heritage and tourism. On May 30, 2023, on the seventh National Science and Technology Worker Day, Yang Zhaoping was awarded the National Innovation Medal, which is second only to the national highest science and technology award for scientific and technological talents.

Tianshan Mountain is the largest latitude-bearing mountain system in the world. Surrounded by the vast Junggar Desert and Tarim Desert, Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang brings together hot and cold, dry and wet, desolation and beauty, spectacular and exquisite. Its aesthetic diversity, geological diversity, and biological ecological diversity are rare in the world. From 2009 to 2012, as the leader of the expert group, Yang Zhaoping organized top international and domestic experts to compile a series of technical reports, which were highly evaluated by the experts of the World Heritage Center. In July 2012, Yang Zhaoping accompanied the IUCN experts from the World Heritage Center in the whole field assessment, achieving "zero" errors in the assessment and inspection, and successfully passed. On June 21, 2013, during the 37th session of the World Heritage Congress, Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang was officially included in the World Heritage List. It is of great significance to guide the scientific protection and management of nature-protected areas.

Since 2013, she has traveled millions of kilometers, digitally collecting world heritage sites in 54 countries such as the Altai Mountains around Mongolia and Kazakhstan, five Central Asian countries, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. The Information Service Platform of Silk Road Digital Heritage and Tourism has been built, which is presented in Chinese, English, Russian, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and other languages with exquisite photos, aerial panoramics, audio, and video. To promote the scientific, aesthetic, historical, cultural, and artistic values of 1,500 World Heritage sites and tourism resources in countries along the Silk Road, build a digital Silk Road exhibition and experience center integrating online and offline, and build an important window for exchanges and integration between Xinjiang and the world. An open and shared Silk Road heritage exhibition platform, digital tourism publicity platform, and cultural and technological exchange platform have been formed.

Time flies quickly, and her enthusiasm for scientific research supports Yang Zhaoping to stay at the forefront of science. Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences provides an excellent academic research environment and technological innovation atmosphere, which supports her continuous academic innovation and brings out a leading innovative scientific research team in the field of World natural heritage research and tourism in China. Under the background of the new era, Yang Zhaoping and her team will make greater contributions to the Belt and Road regional cooperation.

In 2012, Yang Zhaoping Gave a Keynote Presentation to the UN Heritage Experts (Image from Tianshan World Heritage Application Office)

In July 2012, IUCN Experts Visited the Nominated Sites of the Tianshan World Natural Heritage in Xinjiang (Image from Tianshan World Heritage Application Office)

Digital Silk Road Exhibition and Experience Center (Image from Fan Shucai)