The Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in Beijing, together with the Xinjiang Research Center for Mineral Resources, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (CAS), Hong Kong University, Center for Russian and Central Eurasian Mineral Studies (CERCAMS), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Union of Geosciences (IUGS), IGCP Project #592 "Continental construction in Central Asia", organized a 7-day (August 22 to 28, 2013) international workshop and field trip across the Beishan Orogen in NW China.  

The workshop included 2 days of scientific session before and after the field trip plus en-route scientific sessions in the evenings. Integrating previous and recent field observations and laboratory analyses, the general purpose of this meeting is to discuss the tectonic evolution of the Beishan Orogen, which connection with the Southern Tianshan suture to the west and the Solonker suture to the east, is crucial for understanding the history of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB).

The specific objectives is to understand the accretionary structures and subduction-related magmatism, to study the geological implications of eclogites and granulites, and to unravel the accretionary tectonics and temporal-spatial characteristics of the southern CAOB. The field trip was 5-day field observations of the key tectonic zones across the Beishan Orogen. The pre- and post-field and en-route scientific sessions provided the opportunity for the international geological community to know the background of Beishan Orogen study and to present new research results in the fields of Earth Sciences (stratigraphy, petrology, structural geology, geochemistry, geochronology, ore deposits, paleomagnetism, seismology, etc.) dealing with the geological evolution of the CAOB and related areas and their actualistic examples from the western Pacific.