In order to let international students get a broader and more practical understanding of their majors, and to prepare for their graduate programs, on the November 11th-14th, 18 international students from Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Mongolia and Laos were organized by the college of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University (NWAFU) to visit the NWAFU scientific research experiment stations in Shenmu, Ansai, Changwu in Shaanxi, with professors from the college of Natural Resources and Environment and staffs from the international college accompanying.

These three NWAFU scientific research experiment stations are located on Loess Plateau (also known as the Huangtu Plateau), which is the largest and most concentrated loess area on earth, with the most abundant resources and have the most various types of land, which is typical for agricultural scientific research and experimental demonstrations. Seven majors including Soil Sciences, Plant Nutrition, Resource & Environmental Biology, Land Resources & Spatial Information Technology and so on in college of Natural Resources and Environment, UWAFU are closely related to the study of the Loess Plateau. Due to varieties of the students programs, not all of the international students in our university had the chance to visit our scientific research experiment stations before; it is the first time for most of the international students to have such a valuable and meaningful experience. 

Students traveled for thousands of miles in those four days, and were totally attracted by the gully physiognomy of the Loess Plateau. Hard-working researchers who need to sacrifice holidays but literally live in these stations for months in each experiment station deeply moved and left unforgettable memories for the international students. KHRUAKHAM, WARAYUT whom from Thailand said, I had only been to Changwu experiment station before, I feel very lucky to have the chance to visit other experiment stations. I never thought researchers could accomplish so many experiment results and achievements in such tough places. I have to work hard, not only to learn the scientific technologies but to learn the spirit of the researchers here.

History of each station, equipments applied, and research directions were detailed explained by person in charge from each station. In Shenmu experiment station, Wang, Sheng who was doing his research there explained his own experimental program to the international students. The international students were impressed by the high-tech equipments that were used such as auto-weighing lysimeters, raindrop disdrometer, COSMOS etc. and what’s more interesting was that all the data collected by the high-tech equipments can be chased by smart phones in any place any time. The international students were amazed by the technologies that were used to help the development of regional agricultural sustainable and the improvement of the local ecological environment. NI NI THAN who from Myanmar said this visit give her the chance to feel the charm of new science technologies in a direct way, and this trip reminds her the responsibility as a young scientist, and she is very proud as young scientist.

During the visiting, the international students made a quick visit in Yanan, one of the Chinese red revolutionary cities. Revolutionary site, Zaoyuan and Yangjialing were visited. Those sites brought memories of the glorious history of China decades ago. NASIR MUBASHER, an international student from Pakistan was very excited and said, in his country, people respect Chairman Mao very much and he made China rich and strong from poverty. This tour is meaningful which strengthen the understanding of Chinese culture, especially Chinese revolutionary culture for international students. 

This is the first time in NWAFU that international students were organized to visit experiment stations by academic college. And it is also the first time that the visit was led by supervisors of the international students. This trip provided more chances for international students to communicate with professors of their own and from different study areas. The students got the chance to broader their horizons as well and could also have more opportunities to enhance friendships. YEK, SAMBATH from Cambodia said, he was thankful to the teachers and students who made this trip possible, he was very excited to see the Loess Plateau and the experiment stations, he came from a country which was poor and need to be developed, he was eager to learn the technologies and brought them back to Cambodia to develop his own country especially in the agriculture development. 

From 2006, NWAFU had more than thousands of international students from 53 different countries, in which more than 60% were along the "the Belt and Road Initiatives” regions. This practical activity is an active response to the national strategy of the "the Belt and Road Initiatives” and Silk Road agriculture education and research innovation alliance of NWAFU.