Lanzhou University

Lanzhou University was founded in 1909 and is the only Project 985 institution in northwestern China, teaching across the sciences, arid-zone ecology, grassland science, nuclear science, chemistry and the humanities. Its geography is what makes it interesting for a Kazakh applicant. Lanzhou sits in Gansu on the historic Silk Road, at the eastern approach to Central Asia, in a semi-arid continental environment genuinely comparable to much of Kazakhstan. That similarity is academic rather than scenic. The university's strengths in arid-zone ecology, grassland science, desertification and dryland agriculture address conditions that exist across Kazakhstan and barely at all in coastal China. A student researching steppe degradation, water scarcity or pasture management here is working on Kazakh problems with Chinese resources. Lanzhou is also among the cheapest major Chinese university cities to live in, and the closest of them to Kazakhstan.