Attached to the Grand Canyon, Comprehending the Grand Canyon: A Geologist's Journal Through the Grand Canyon

Author: Yang Yichou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-02-01
Features: Exploration has two types, one for scientific purposes, and the other for curiosity. They are entirely different. The China Society for Scientific Exploration has always advocated scientific exploration, which aims at scientific research and is guided by scientific thinking and methods. The trek across the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon this time belongs to scientific exploration. In 1998, the first successful human trek across the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon was safely and successfully completed, fulfilling the long-cherished dream of Chinese scientists and becoming a pride of the Chinese nation. At the end of the 20th century, this major scientific exploration was ranked second in the Top 10 Science and Technology Progress News of 1998 by the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a well-deserved honor. The safe and successful completion of the scientific exploration and survey of the trek across the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is the result of years of research by Chinese scientists on the canyon, gradually deepening their understanding of the canyon's natural laws and, in the process, realizing self-awareness and self-improvement. From the perspective of epistemology, it is a virtuous cycle of "knowing oneself and knowing the other" between science and nature, a fruit of mutual understanding and reliance between humans and nature. The scientists trekked across the canyon, faced danger firsthand, and recorded their experiences authentically, vividly recreating the arduous journey and profoundly revealing the ups and downs, joys and sorrows of scientific exploration. From the author's journal, we can feel both the hardships of the exploration and the joys of nature; we can be moved by the inspiring stories of the explorers and touched by their deep friendships; we can learn the basic knowledge of field exploration and survey, and we can also understand the immense magic of the canyon's moisture channel in both nature and human activities.