Abstract: The arid zones(including semi-arid zones)are widely distributed from the west of the Da Hinggan Meuntain,through the Taihang Mountain,the Liupan Mountain,and the Bayan Har Mountains,to the Nyainqentanglha Range in China. In the past 40 years,especially the last 10 years,China has made a great progress in the arid zones research,and some fields have reached the advanced level of the world.The arid zones research involves the following aspects: 1.The inventory and evaluation of natural resources,including land types, land resource,water resource,climate resource,biological resource,mineral resource,etc. 2.The monitoring and control of natual disasters.The emphasis was placed on the research on disasters such as drought,sand-storm and salinization, particularly,controlling sand-storm got an evident result. 3.The evolution and prediction of geographical environoment.Because of natural evolution and the effect of human activities,the geographical environment in arid zones is changing continually. 4.The production allocation of industry,agricultune and transprt.To meet the need of national economy developmert,recently the production allocation of arid zones has been approached deeply. 5.Population dynamics.The investigation was carried out on minority nationalities population growth,the population and economy of mountainous areas, population and environment,migration of northwest.The policies of adjusting industrial structure and coordinating development were proposed. 6.Regional research and regional development.Some prieparations are being made for the development at a large scale in the next century. In the future,one should continue to make an effort on the range and depth of the arid zones research,especially strengthen comprehensive and regional research.