China to Build First Mars Simulation Base in Qinghai Province

China will establish its first Mars simulation base in Northwest China's Qinghai Province to promote space and science education as well as to stimulate local tourism.

The base will be located in the red cliff region of the Qaidam Basin in the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the China News Service reported. 

"Haixi prefecture, which is covered by over 95,000 square kilometers of desert, has China's largest Yardang landform. The geographic conditions, and natural environment are similar to those on Mars," Wang Jingzhai, the prefecture's deputy Party chief was quoted by the China News Service as saying.

The base will have two areas, the "Mars community" and "Mars campsite," which will be connected by a road but invisible to each other, the report said. 

As the only one of its kind in China, the base will fill the void in practical science education that combines the fields of space, astronomy, geology, meteorology and new energy, said Liu Xiaoqun, director of the lunar and deep space exploration department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China News Service reported. 

The base, which is near many tourist attractions along the Hexi Corridor, a part of the Silk Road in Northwest China's Gansu Province, will be turned into a cultural and tourist experience base that combines elements of "science, science fiction, nature, ecology and culture," Liu said.

However, Jiao Weixin, a space science professor at Peking University, told the Global Times that although the Yardang landform closely resembles that of Mars, they are different.

"In terms of atmosphere, magnetic field and gravity, the Mars simulation base will find it difficult to imitate the original," Jiao said. 

"Domestic scientific research on Mars still has a long way to go," he added.

This article, written by Qu Qiuyan, was originally published by the Global Times.