Joint effort

"The selected achievements are the result of multi-disciplined researches and they have contributed to national science and development, as well as bringing utmost benefits to human life," Bai said.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been an example of how scientists helped promote the national development, according to Du Xiangwan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

More than 1,000 scientists and engineers worked in the extremely harsh environment along the Qinghai-Tibetan line to solve a range of problems, such as the instalment of rails in frozen conditions, power maintenance of the train, as well as the protection of the environment and fragile ecological system.

Chinese scientists have also contributed to the international science development, as revealed by some of the 10 greatest achievements.

The dig underground to 5,158 metres was part of a joint international programme to explore the secrets of the Earth's crust.

Four years into the project, Chinese scientists worked the fastest and tunnelled the deepest among all the 20 sub-programmes.

The scientific discoveries made through the project have enabled scientists to better understand the composition of the Earth's crust, the layout of different minerals and the possible ways of seismic movement, Bai said.

Last year, Chinese scientists also launched the massive project to measure the height of Qomolangma. They looked into the glacier conditions and carried out a metrology study on the peak.

"This was not only a project to simply identify the height of a mountain in China, but also a major collaborative work to reveal the correlations between global climate change and Qomolangma's situation," said Bai.

After five months of collaborative work of scientists from different sectors, it was declared in October that the world's highest mountain is 8,844.43 metres high. The previous measurement made by Chinese in 1975 reported that the height of the peak was 8,848.13 metres.

Scientists said the world's highest peak has become shorter partly as a result of more accurate measuring, and partly because the global warming has thawed ice in the glacier of Qomolangma.

The project was significant in global warming research and the corresponding changes it brings, said Bai.