Resource frontiers: managing water on a trans-border Asian river: Chinese research sites

Chinese research sites

Assisted by a local research assistant, Dr Namsaraeva spent two months in China conducting ethnographic research in two phases. One phase was based in the north-western city of Lanzhou, which sits in countryside intended for irrigation with water abstracted from the Selenga and other Inner Asian rivers. She held approximately ten interviews with researchers at Lanzhou University’s Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, concerning plans for water abstraction from Inner Asia. Her final phase of research was in Beijing, and involved interviews with the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science; and the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research. These focussed on international dimensions of Chinese interests in the Selenga within the large nation scale hydropower projects, such as ‘Northern Waters to South’ (北水南调项目) and ‘Southern Waters to North’ (南水北调项目).