The Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry ofEducation), was founded at the Lanzhou University in August 2000 and was officiallyopened in September 2001. It passed the first assessment by MOE at national level in2004 and passed the second and third assessments and were categorized as excellent in2009,2015 respectively.

With previous national investments on university constructions (211 project and 985project), the laboratory has become a well-established lab with sound internationalreputation. With continuous funds from MOE and Lanzhou University, the laboratorywill equip more advanced instrumentsand more researchers so that thelaboratory will be an influentialinternational research basementin geoscience studies.