Experts and scholars discussed studies of the Silk Road courier station culture in the Hexi Corridor at a seminar held at Jiayuguan Pass, Gansu Province, on July 31.

Tian Shu, vice president of Northwest Normal University, said that there are complete Silk Road courier station remains in the Hexi Corridor, but for a long time they have not received enough attention and relevant research on them is weak. This is a prominent problem in current studies of the Silk Road. We should intensify the protection and studies of the Silk Road courier station culture, and break through spatial and temporal limitations by expanding our studies westward to the ancient Western Regions and eastward to the starting point of the Silk Road, in a bid to comprehensively reveal the world significance of the Silk Road.

Chen Xinchang, president of the Research Institute of Jiayuguan Silk Road (Great Wall) Culture, said that strengthening the investigation and research of historical documents and geographic information pertaining to courtier station ruins will help change the fractured phenomenon facing studies of the Hexi Corridor culture.

Ma Yufeng, an assistant professor from the College of History and Culture at Northwest Normal University, said that we should establish a scientific and ideal administrative system, set up professional research and cultural relics protection teams, and intensify scientific and preventive protection of the Silk Road courier station sites, thus achieving the lasting protection of the courier station sites in the Hexi Corridor and the establishment and inheritance of courier station culture.