Researchers captivated by SZ's tech, culture

A delegation composed of 21 researchers and professors from countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) routes was greeted by a volunteer team from Nanshan Museum at Nantou Ancient Town, where Xie Jinyan, one of the volunteers, provided a detailed explanation of the town’s history Friday.

Xie Jinyan (L), a volunteer from the International Volunteer Team of Nanshan Museum, introduces the history of Nantou Ancient Town to a delegation composed of 21 researchers and professors from countries along the Belt and Road in front of the south gate of the town in Nanshan District on Friday. Chen Siqi

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BRI.

During the trip, the foreign visitors showed great interest in taking pictures and shooting videos of the historical sites and relics dating back nearly 1,700 years.

Nantou Ancient Town served as a cultural stop for the delegates during their academic visit to Shenzhen. Hailing from seven BRI countries, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Rwanda, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the delegates gathered in Shenzhen to participate in an international training session focused on utilizing satellite data and monitoring natural disasters to mitigate their impact. The session will last until June 9.

The training session, organized by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIAT), will contain a series of events including forums, lectures and workshops, according to Dr. Sun Bo, assistant professor at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Integration Technology, a sub-institute of the SIAT. “We hope to establish enhanced cooperation with these countries,” Sun said.

“Shenzhen is an innovative city that is attractive to startups and researchers due to its good working environment,” said Iranian Vazifedoust Majid, a professor from the University of Guilan, who specializes in water resources.

“In my country, we are facing several natural disasters, like earthquakes, droughts and floods. The workshop I am participating in is very useful, as the trainers share their practical experience in mitigating the impact of these natural disasters,” the professor said.

Kozhokulov Sadyrbek, who spent eight years studying in China, went back to his home country of Kyrgyzstan to further conduct research in the field of environmental and ecological geography after completing his doctoral degree at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2020.

“I have learned quite a lot of new technologies during this training session, especially the modern tech applied in unmanned aerial vehicles. I will bring back the technologies and knowledge to my country,” Sadyrbek, a researcher from the CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (Bishkek) in Kyrgyzstan, said. “I also established relationships with some scientists in my area of interest at the training session, which will provide me opportunities to establish collaboration with them in the future.”

Dr. Sun, who led the foreign delegation to Nantou Ancient Town, said, “We organized the foreign researchers and professors to come and visit cultural attractions like Nantou Ancient Town. Because quite a few delegates visited China or Shenzhen for the first time, we wanted them to understand Shenzhen’s rapid development comprehensively. At the historical site, the experts could feel closely attached to Chinese traditional culture and the unique geography in the Lingnan area.”