Here used to have ripple water, countless wild ducks and swimming fishes; here used to be an important town on the Silk Road, the capital of five empires, and grain production area of Hexi Corridor; here used to be the place in a beautiful poem:
　　From cups of jade that glow with wine of grapes at night,
　　Drinking to pipa songs, we are summoned to fight.
　　Don't laugh if we lie drunk upon the battleground!
　　How many warriors ever came back safe and sound?
The picture, however, is completely different now. The river is drying up, and the land is encroached by deserts with dust and sand flying in the air. This is the history of Qingtu Lake, located at the low reaches of Shiyang River Basin. Aiming to deal with the challenge faced by the area, the Shiyanghe Experimental Station of China Agricultural University (CAU) was established ten years ago. In ten years, the Station hasgone from a small bungalow rented from locals to a newly erected three-storycomprehensive laboratory building, and from spreading dust and sand to green trees within the site. Hundreds of professors and students have conducted their research at the Station, and made great progresses in related fields. The experience in the Station has benefited their career greatly, by improving not only their research abilities, but also their overall development.
　　Shiyang River Basin is one of three inland river basins in Gansu province of northwest China, with total area of 4.16 million hectares and population of over 2.3 million. In the Inland area of the arid region of Northwest China, Shiyang River Basin is the most populated oneextracting the largest portion of available water resources of the area. The Basin alsohas the sharpest contradiction between water supply and demand, and has the most severe problem of environmental degradation in the region. The regional ecosystem has beenrapidly declining as the recent decades’ economic development accompanying by unregulated and excess extraction of local water resources.‘One time of wind per year, from spring to winter’vividly depicts the localharsh environment. Qingtu Lake, locatedin the north of the Minqin Oasis, has completely dried up during the fifties of the last century, and the low reach of Shiyang River Basin has become one of four largest sand storm sources of China. Due tothe increasing mineralization, groundwater of the region became unsuitable for irrigation, let alone for people or livestock to drink. Many local people are forced to leave their hometown, and become ‘ecological refugees’ elsewhere. The severe degradation ofecosystem in Shiyang River Basin has attracted attention from the Party Central Committee, the State Council, Ministries, and other agencies and organizations. Since 2001, former Prime Minister Wen, Jiabao had made comments publicly on this matter several times, and vowed ‘never let Qingtu Lake turn into another Lop Nur. This is not a mere will, but must be an attainable goal. This is not only a regional problem, but also a long-term strategy that has important implications on the country’s development and survival’. Recently, Chairman of the Party Central Committee Jingping Xi has pointed out explicitly that ‘we need make sure Minqin will not turn into another Lop Nur’.
　　The Shiyanghe Experimental Station of CAU is the only field experimental station in the Shiyang River Basin which devotes to research on saving water in agriculture and ecological systems. In addition to provide observational data on hydrological cycle and water use efficiency of a river basin located in a typical inland arid region, the Station also offers theological basis and technological service for some key renovation projects in the region, such as adjusting industrial structure, restoring ecological system, protecting water resources, and etc. With the support from agencies at different levels and hard work from professors and students, the Station has made great progresses in last ten years: in 2010, the Station was authorized as the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Field Scientific Observatory Station; in 2012, the new comprehensive laboratory building was completed and came into use; in 2013, the Station was authorized by the Ministry of Water Resources as the promotion and demonstration base for water-saving technologies in agriculture; in 2014, large scale controlled environmental chamber funded by the ‘948 Project’ of the Ministry of Water Resource came into operation. The team working at the Station was awarded as ‘the innovation team’ in 2006. Director of the Station ShaozhongKang received ICID Watsave Award-Technology in 2006, and awarded honorary doctoral degree of Science by Lancaster University in 2010 for his outstanding research work in Shiyang River Basin; Director Kang was elected as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2011; Profs. Shaoyuan Feng, Prof. Guanhua Huang, Prof. Taisheng Du, Associate Prof. Xiaomin Mao and ZailinHuo were awarded the ‘New (Cross) Century Excellent Talents’ of the MOE; Prof. Prof. Du and Associate Prof. Huo were selected as Outstanding Young Scientists of the State Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2012 and 2013 respectively; in 2013, the team was awarded ‘outstanding innovation group’ of NSFC, and was awarded the Base of Innovation and Introduction of Talents from Abroad in High-efficient Water Use in Agriculture, funded by the MOE and the Bureau of Foreign Experts Administration. There were two projects, with the Station playing a very import role to their successes, received the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award of the State Council in 2010 and 2013 respectively.  One was titled‘Key regulating and control technologies on saving water chemically in agriculture and associated products commercialization and application’ and the other was ‘Eco-friendly water allocation theories and regulating technologies in inland river basin of arid region and their applications’. Dr. Baozhong Zhang’s dissertation which mainly based on work conducted at the Station was awarded‘National Top Hundred Ph.D Dissertations’. The Station has become a research and demonstration platform on high-efficient water use in agriculture that has national and international reputation in the field.
1.
　　Twenty years ago, Prof. Kang, then a faculty of Northwest Agricultural University, visited Qingtu Lake for the first time, and what he saw was broken walls everywhere as deserts were encroachingand people retreating. There were only 21 people remaining in a town used to have 134 people. Prof. Kang started to set up experiments in the low reaches of the Basin as early as 1996, and undergraduates and graduate students, such as Zongsu Liang, Yinhua Pan, and Taisheng Du were the pioneers to conduct their thesis work in the area. After learning the difficulties faced by the newly established Center for Agriculture Water Research in China (CAWR) in 2003, Mr. Yinglong Zhu from Taiwan donated one million yuan to the Center for purchasing instruments and equipment to facilitate research on water-saving in agriculture and sustainable utilization of water resources in Shiyang River Basin of northwest China. In June 2004, CAWR director Shaozhong Kang and deputy-director Shaoyuan Feng visited Shiyang River Basin, and what they saw was still blowing dust, sparse vegetation, and barren sand dunes. Their hearts were aching by those houses that used to be occupied by local peasants, but now buried by yellow sand. Peasants who had been living in the area for many generations were forced to move to somewhere else. At that moment, they decided to establish an observatory experimental station at the desert park located 20 km east of Wuwei City. In June of 2004, Ph.D. students from China Agricultural University Dr. Taisheng Du, Guimin Xia, and Wangcheng Li started their work at the station. On July 23rd 2014, ‘Agricultural and Ecological Water-saving Experimental Station in Shiyang River Basin of China Agricultural University’ was officially launched. Faculties and students from China Agricultural University and Northwest Agricultural University carried out experiments for saving water in agriculture at the desert park, Xuebaiagro-technical station, and Dengmaying Lake. Back then without their own house and tap-water, they had to live in small bungalow, fetch water from long distance away, cook the dinner themselves, and sleep on an earthen bed. The experimental station was relocated to the current site (Wangjingzhai, Donghe, Liangzhou District, Wuwei city) with the financial support from ‘985’ funding of China Agricultural University. As offices, dormitory, and dining hall were built, new equipment and instruments were added, and a cook was hired, the experimental and living conditions of the Station had been greatly improved. In 2007, the Station signed a technology cooperation agreement with the Shiyang River Basin Administration Bureau, and the Station became an important technical support institution for integrativemanagement projects of the Shiyang River Basin; in June 2009, China Agricultural University and Wuwei Municipal Government signed ‘Technical cooperation agreement between China Agricultural University and Wuwei Municipal Government’ to build all-round cooperation on ecological restoration of Shiyang River Basin, greenhouse agriculture, water-saving in agriculture, and technician training;In July 2010, the Station was named ‘Shiyanghe Experimental Station for Improving Water Use Efficiency of the Ministry of Agriculture; in 2011, Wuwei Municipal Government gave a piece of land to the Station for free, and on July 23, the comprehensive experimental laboratory building began to be constructed, and was completed in August 1, 2012. The building has three floors with total area of over 3600 m2 and has enough rooms to accommodate more than 100 people at the same time. The completion of the building marked the new era of the Shiyanghe Experimental Station; in June 2013, China Agricultural University founded ‘New Rural Development Research Institute Professor Workstation’ at the Station. Until present, the station has 680 mu farmland for carrying out a variety of experiments, over 4600 m2 for laboratories, dormitories, and other ancillary facilities, over 400 hectares vineyards and 20 solar greenhouses for research and demonstration on water-saving irrigation. The Station also built laboratories ofplant physiology, soil physics, soil chemistry, crop quality, isotope and chromatogram, and water-saving equipment and agents, and field experimental systems forfarmland flux observation, water-saving irrigation in greenhouses, water transformation in farmland, and etc. The station has total fixed assets of 30 million yuan with over 10 million worth of instruments such as Automated Chemistry Analyzer, Photosynthesis Analyzer, Lysimeter, Eddy Covariance System, and plant growth observation system.
2.
　　In every year, many students from China Agricultural University came to the Station and spent their precious two-year or more in this remote area. Many times they were in the field sweating under the scotching sun; many times they went to the field from very early morning to very late evening; many times they worked tirelessly all day long. The hardship they went through during their stay at the Station made them more resolute, diligent, determined and tenacious to pursue their career. The Station was their home in this oasis surrounding by endless sand sea. Faculties and students alike went to field to collect samples and make measurements, and conduct laboratory analysis and reading references when returned to the Station withoutcomplaining the heavy work load and dirty environment.They worked in the field just like local farmers, with dust on their faces and sweating all over body. Graduate students of 2002 Ling Tong, Limin Yao, and HongweiJia went to the field at very early morning, and took measurement under direct sun of more than 50℃temperature at noon, and even fetched water using a horse-drawn cab when they did research on spatial distribution of soil infiltration parameters in the Minqin Oasis; Graduate students of 2003 ZhifuHao and TingboLv went out to the field for the whole day observing water table of bore holes and soil infiltration dynamics, carrying only solid food and a kettle of hot water; in 2005, there was a female graduate student XiaoyanHou,who conducted experiments of drip irrigation under plastic mulch on potato overcoming great difficulties in Xuebai Agricultural Technological Base where only unisex toilet was available; Ph.D. candidate Baozhong Zhang rode his bike alone to the vineyard located 4 km away from the Station to take the measurements of water and heat flux dynamics and growth status of grapevines, disregard the weather, every day from later March tomid-October for four consecutive years during his five-year graduate study. Dr. Zhang’s dissertation was awarded ‘National Top Hundred Ph.D Dissertations’. After graduation, Dr. Zhang soon became one of major research scientists of the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research. After announcing the decision in Dr. Zhang dissertation defense seminar, Chairman of the defense committee, Academician and Director of Civil Engineering, Water Resources, and Architecture Pision of China Academy of Engineering, Professor of Tsinghua University Zhidong Lei spoke emotionally that the spirit of doing hard work in turning scientific theories into practice through hands-on experiments and observationas Dr. Zhang had done for his dissertation, rather than running models and writing manuscripts while sitting in front of a computer, set a good example for other students to follow.Also Prof. Taisheng Du has been busying conducting research work and taking on administrative duty of the Station while living apart from his wife and son for a long period of time; Dr. Sien Li has been stationed at Shiyang River Basin for about ten years since he was a student (now he is employed by CAU and in charge of day-to-day operation of the Station) and made great contributions to the rapid development of the Station.
　　Centering on meeting the demand for technologies from industrial structure adjustment and key management projects in Shiyang River Basin, faculties and students of China Agricultural University havecarried out a variety of studies in the last ten years, such as conducting long-term observations of water consumption for local field crops, fruit trees, vegetables and psammophytic vegetationspecies, exploring novel high-efficient and regulating water quality irrigation model on irrigation with brackish water for field and psammophytic vegetation species, deficit irrigation for fruit trees and greenhouse vegetables, and water-saving irrigation for characteristic fruits of local areas, studying soil water and nitrogen dynamics and management practices combining irrigation and fertilization under water-saving irrigation methods, analyzing the impacts of climate change and human activities on water resources, modeling groundwater flow dynamics and hydraulic cycle in agricultural systems, optimizing allocation of water resources, assessing the environmental impacts of water-saving renovation projects in irrigation districts, and etc.
　　The station has hosted more than 20 projects with funding over 30 million RMB from sources like ‘863 Program’, National Key Technology R&D Programs, the Key Programs of the NSFC, the General Programs of the NSFC, China-Europe International Cooperation Program, and the Special programs for National Department Public Benefit Research of the Ministry of Water Resources, and other programs of provincial or ministry level. The hard-working got paid off, and the Station has accumulated more than 420 million inPidual values through long-term field observation. Based on the precision observation and modeling, the Station has achieved fruitful results on theories and technologies of high-efficient water utilization in arid areas: (i) revealed the mechanism of water resources transformation and consumption at the basin scale; (ii) proposed the water-saving, good-quality, and high-efficient irrigation systems for the main field crops, fruit trees, greenhouse vegetables and cotton of the region to provide technical support for the agricultural development of the basin; (iii)developed models for better quantifying water transformation in the region; (iv) developed a decision support system to assist unified allocation of water resources over the entire basin and provide feasible alternative management measures; (v) presented integrative high-efficient and water-saving irrigation modules for three typical regions of Shiyang River Basin, which provided a demonstrative model for the development of the water-saving agriculture in the region; (vi) developed five types of control equipment to provide equipment support for water resources regulation and control and high-efficient water use in agriculture; (vii) implemented and formulated three different types of construction and operation standards for engineering projects related to high-efficient irrigation in agriculture; (viii) created a safeguard system for rational allocation and high-efficient use of water resources in Shiyang River Basin; (viiii) organized training courses and activities to demonstrate and promote applications of integrative water-saving technologies for different types of regions, which has achieved remarkable economic, social and ecological benefits.
　　Over years, the Station has published more than 250 papers in international renowned journals from both China and abroad such as Journal of Experimental Botany, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Journal of Hydrology, Agricultural Water Management, Irrigation Science, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (in Chinese), and Journal of Ecology (in Chinese), and the papers have been cited extensively by researchers from different countries. A book named Water Transformation and Associated Regulation and Control model for Saving Water at Basin Scale in Arid Region of Northwest China –Shiyang River Basin, Gansu Province as an example was published with financial support from National Publishing Foundation for Science and Technology Academic Publications, and was selected into the national ‘three one-hundred’original publication project list of General Administration of Press and Publication of the State Council. The findings based on research work completed at the Station have been included in a book on food security edited by Prof. Charles Pastemak, and later were introduced worldwide. They have also been included in a book, Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Irrigated Agriculture, authored by International Committee of Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) to promote the most advanced water-saving irrigation technologies. Also the findings were included intoGeneral Policy Outline for Water-saving Technologies in Chinapromulgated by the National Development and Reform Commission and the other four ministries to introduce and promote water-saving technologies in agriculture. The findings on alternate root irrigation and deficit irrigation，and related field research and demonstration, achieved with Prof. Jianhua Zhang of Chinese University of Hong Kong, have been reported as a special topic in Nature, a worldwide renowned academic journal. Basic research on agricultural and ecological water-saving in arid areas of northwest China, a project of the Key Program of the NSFC completed at the Station, was selected as one of the most accomplished projects of NSFC in 2007. The results attained at the Station has won ICID Watsave Award-Technology, three times the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award of the State Council, the second prize of the National Natural Science Award of the State Council, 4 times Science and Technology Progress Awards at provincial or ministry level, and the station was granted 10 invention patents and 3 software copyrights. One dissertation with its major work completed at the station was name ‘National Top Hundred Dissertation’.
　　With improvements of both research and living conditions, the Station has become an important research and training base on high-efficient water use in agriculture of northwest China. Over 200 professors, research scientists, and graduate students and over 40 undergraduates from China Agricultural University (College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, College of Resources and Environment, College of Agriculture, and College of Human Development), Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University,Chinese University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong Baptist University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University,Hehai University, Taiyuan University of Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Gansu Research Institute of Water Resources, Yellow RiverWater Resources Committee, as well as oversea colleges of Lancaster University, Oregon State University, and Lund University of Sweden, have conducted their research at the Station. Moreover, there were more than 150 undergraduate students did their internships at the Station. The Station has trained 35 Ph.D. and 102 Master students, in which many got employed by universities, research institutions, agencies at different levels, such as the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Northwest A&F University, Chang’an University, Hehai University, Changjiang Water Resources Committee, Huanghe Water Resources Committee, Huaihe Water Resources Committee, and etc. Haiyan Yu and Yun Zhang respectively went on to Oxford University and Washington State University to pursue advanced degrees. From Station to places all around China, they continue to practice and spread the ‘Shiyanghe Spirit’ of hard-working and dedication.
3.
　　To better serve the local economic, social and ecological developments, the Station has been devoting to put the research findings into practice. The management team of the Station includes personals from both the University and local officials, and technicians from local agencies have made great contribution to the construction and management of the Station, as well as demonstration and promotion of the technologies proposed by the Station. Since 2010, the Station and Wuwei Municipal Government cosponsored‘Modern Water-saving Irrigation Technologies’ training and demonstration for 10 times, and it was estimated that over 2000 people had benefited from the activities; The Station organized ‘water-saving school for farmers’ and held ‘open day’ at the Station for three consecutive years from 2011 to 2013, and 424 farmers from 14 villages of different regions of Shiyang River Basin participated in the activities; The Station organized young faculties, along with graduate and undergraduate students to travel to more than 20 townships in different irrigation districts of the Basin to promote water-saving irrigation technologies, with emphasis on the technologies that had been proved by the research conducted at the Station to be suitable for the local conditions, such as drip irrigation under plastic mulch, drip irrigation for greenhouse vegetables, alternate furrow irrigation, and deficit irrigation. They also travelled to local elementary schools to raise awarenessofthe importance of saving water. Their work has been welcomed and highly valued by local farmers and agencies. To further promote the findings, the Station and Wuwei Municipal office for saving water co-wrote a series of training and promotion materials, such as Practical Guidelines for Building Water-saving Society in Wuwei, Q &A for Building Water-saving Society in Wuwei, and Brochure for Building Water-saving Society in Wuwei. Since 2007, about 4000 local technicians and government officials have attended training and/or demonstration sessions at the Station, which played important roles in advancing the development of water-saving agriculture and improving irrigation management in the area, as well as achieving good social effectson changing people’s conception on water consumption and raising awareness of saving water. The findings the Station has accomplished also have played an important role in key management projects of Shiyang River Basin, and been highly valued by local agencies and governments.
　　On the other hand, the Station has made contributions to secure funding from different sources to help local poverty alleviation efforts and improve local school conditions. In 2004, Professorand director of the Station Shaozhong Kang provided assistance for building 8 Hope Primary Schools at poor areas of Shiyang River Basin, with help from Mr. Chenglong Zhu, a Taiwan businessman. In addition, faculties and students at the Station often volunteered to tutor local children for free in their spare time, which was greatly welcomed and appreciated.
4.
　　The rapid development of the Statin has attracted wide spread attention and received great support from governmental agencies, as well as people from all walks of life. The Station has hosted over 1500 visitors from different countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Israel, Denmark, North Korea, Egypt, Chile, Georgia, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Zambia, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other provinces of China. Scholars from China and abroad including Prof. Edward Barlow (Melbourne University,Fellow of Australian Academy of Engineering) and Prof. William Davies (Director of Environmental Center of Lancaster University, Chairman of Association of Applied Biologists of the United Kingdom), Prof. E. M. Edmund(Director of Water Resources Institute of Oxford University), Prof. Katsumi Fuji (President of Iwate University of Japan), Prof. Robert Sharp (University of Missouri, Director of Cross-discipline Joint Research Center), Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences Changming Liu and Dadao Lu, Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering Zhidong Lei, Zhi Mao, Maohua Wang, Peicheng Li, Xingtu Liu, Xiwen Luo, and Zhibiao Nan have visited the Station and offered their advice for the development of the Station; Vice-chairman of National People’s Congress Standing CommitteeShusheng Jiang and Baowen Zhang, CPC Party Chief of Gansu Province Hao Lu visited the Station; Officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture including ZhiweiGuo, Yuanhua Li, ShishanQiao, Xuetao Sun, HaoGu, Kaipeng Jiang, Wenjin Ni, Wenxiang Wu, Zantang Li, Leshi Zhao, Xinguang Dong, and Tieshen Su, as well as officials from Science and Technology Department, Water Resources Department, Agriculture Department, and Land Resources Department of Gansu Province including Wenqing Li, Huaping Zheng, Guoxi Kang, Weigong Luan, and Hengtong Wang have visited the Station for multiple times; President of CAUBinshengKe have visited the Station twice, encouraging the Station to continue to work on the characteristic water-saving and high-efficient agriculture in the oasis of inland arid regions,playing the role of ‘research platform, training base, demonstration window, and serving the Northwest’, and strive to become the world first-class research, demonstration and promotion base on high-efficient water use in agriculture;In August 2010, CPC Party Chief of CAU Zhenyuan Qu visited the Station, expecting the Station to become better; Other leaders of CAU including Qixin Sun, Da Guo, Jianhua Zhang, Tao Wang, Zhaohu LI, and Yuanshi Guan also visited the Station; Former and present officials of Wuwei Municipal Government including RongguiHuo, Qingping Xiao, Xusheng Zhang, ChengluGuo, Cunlu Liu, Zhadong Wang, Wei He, Wenshan Xu, ZhaohuNiu, ErliCai, Mingsheng Li, Shiying Li, Xiaohong Zhou, Xiru Hu, Xiaoheng Lu, Xuemin LI, Xiaolin Zhang, Dexing Chen, Ming Chen, Xunwu Shang, and Junyi Jiao also visited the Station for multiple times.
　　The development of the Station serves as the basic platform for research, training, team-building, academic exchange, technology demonstration and promotion. The Station provided theoretical support, technology system, and application model of high-efficient and sustainable use of water resources in fragile ecosystem of inland river basins through field experiments, technology development, equipmentimprovement, and integration of the findings.All the accomplishments the Station has achieved enhanced development of the discipline and progress of the associated technologies, and raised the profile of the Station internationally on high-efficient utilization in water resources, as well as improved level of basin management and greatly promoted sustainabledevelopment of agriculturewith good quality, high-efficient irrigation in inland river basins of arid regions. Through proposing a novel demonstration and promotion system combining industry – academy –research on water resources allocation and regulation, the Station improved local technicians’ professional skills and raised public awareness of saving-water and using water efficiently. The Station also played an important role in leading the change of production model from extensive cultivation and wild flooding irrigation to proper economic structure, development scale, industrial structure, and cultivation land area based on available water resources in the basin.
　　With the support of the Central government and other agencies and hard work of local governments and residents, the Key Management Projects of Shiyang River Basin have achieved great outcome. The total amount of water allocated to Wuwei City in 2010 was 1.612 billion m³, 30.7% less than the actual water consumption by the city in 2006; Ecosystem quality in some areas of the Minqin Oasis has been improved. Qingtu Lake formed about 3 km² water surface, after being dried up for 51 years, while water table at the Lake is rising again and vegetation is recovering. The hard-earned achievements are history now, and there is still a long road ahead. Shiyanghe Experimental Station is certain to make greater contribution to the sustainable utilization of water resources in arid areas, and continues to work hard toward a world first-class experimental station on high-efficient water use in agriculture. In the future，Shiyang River Basin will be the place withharmony between human and nature, full of blue sky, clean water, green mountains, fertile lands, and prosperous people.