You may also wish to attend
the Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Forum
in Beijing from September 19-22, 2017.

Chinese National Holidays run from October 1-8,
2017. Everyone will be travelling.

We have a unique opportunity to build on a positive foundation of informed public interest by bringing together researchers, students, collectors and the public from across China to learn from one another and to foster alliances towards furthering research, education, recovery and curation.. Public interest fades, or morphs into fantasy, if it is not periodically reinforced with accurate information.  We anticipate a high-profile event, covered by both local and national Chinese media.  We have received the generous support of the Meteoritical Society and invite you to join our international membership of over 1000.  (We presently have only eight members in China.) 

 “Before the liberation in 1949, meteorite research… had essentially vanished.  No effort was made to collect, preserve or study meteorites… Many more meteorites fall on China’s territory than are recovered… a careful recovery program would collect more of these prime research materials…  The collecting of meteorite samples and their systematic study are of great importance,” Bian Depei wrote in An update of a catalog of Chinese meteorites, Meteoritics 16, 115-128 (1981). 

Asserting that the absence of meteorites in large areas is primarily due to, “A lack of public awareness of these objects,” Kevin Yau wrote, “The obvious ways to fill in some of these blank spots are to educate the public in recognizing meteorites and to encourage them to report any sightings or finds to a museum or an equivalent institution,” Meteorite falls in China and some related human casualty events, Meteoritics 29, 864-871 (1994). 

In the worldwide Meteoritical Bulletin Database there are only 236 Chinese meteorites known from its 3,705,407 square mile expanse.  That is only one tenth as many as the 2163 meteorites known from the USA’s roughly equivalent 3,805,927 square miles.