Lanzhou University has been the best university in the northwestern region of China, ranking as one of the top 30 among over 1,500 universities across China. It is one of the key universities administered directly by the Ministry of Education.
With almost 20,000 undergraduates and over 10,000 postgraduates, LZU has a long history of excellence in chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and geology. It also excels in some unique disciplines and research areas based on the regional resources and culture of northwestern China, such as: Central Asian studies, Dunhuang studies, dry-land ecology, sand fluid dynamics, Tibetan and Loess Plateau sciences, and grassland agriculture. This has greatly contributed to the economic and social development of the local area and the country as a whole.
Seeing great benefits to be reaped from international cooperation, LZU has already established partnerships with over 100 universities and research institutes worldwide. Aiming at establishing the world famous top comprehensive university with multi-discipline coordinative development, Lanzhou University will inherit the concept of “Springing from West China，Striving for a top university” as well as the university motto of “Constantly improving, blazing our own path”, carrying forward the spirit of Lanzhou University, strengthening the opening consciousness, laying stress on the connotation construction, enhancing the education quality, insisting on the strategy of talents strengthening university and constructing a harmonious campus to contribute more to the economic and social development of the western regions, higher education advancement of China and national rejuvenation.
Constantly Improving，Blazing Our Own Path
The motto of Lanzhou University was identified in July, 2007.
On the one hand, the Chinese version of “Constantly Improving” is extracted from “As heaven maintains vigor through movement, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-perfection” from the Book of Change. It is an essential element of the Chinese ethos, and a reason of the successful establishment of Lanzhou University as a unique top university in the less developed western China after ovecoming lots of hardships.
On the other hand, the Chinese version of “Blazing Our Own Path” is an extraction from Yuanmei’s Essays of Suiyuan Garden on Poetry in Qing dynasty. The phrase is a demonstration of the modern spirit featured by reform and innovation. In 1957, Chairman Mao Zedong praised Xin Shuzhi, former president of Lanzhou University, that “Mr. Xin works hard throughout his lifetime and blazes his own path in the academic world” at the supreme state affairs meeting. It is because of the spirit of “Blazing Our Own Path” that Lanzhou University has transformed its geological disadvantages into a disciplinary superiority: Grassland study.
Such studies as Agriculture, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Studies, Semi-arid Climate and Environmental Studies, Northwest Minority Studies, and Dunhuang Studies have made great contributions to the nation as well as to the economic and social development of western China.
Time flies. The motto of Lanzhou University, which highly integrates both national spirit and the spirit of the time, has been recognized as a unique feature of Lanzhou University’s spirit, value and style of behavior, becoming an irreplaceable and intangible power in the development of Lanzhou University.
