On January 14, 2018, Bao Xinhe, President of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), visited Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), accompanied by Kong Xu, executive director of Department of Astronomy, and Wang Tinggui, director of the CAS Key Laboratory in Galaxies & Cosmology. Director of the Purple Mountain Observatory Yang Ji, and deputy director Chang Jin, attended the meeting. Both sides focused on the co-construction of the 2.5m optical telescope, and the improvement of education in the College of Astronomy & Space Science, USTC.

Director Yang Ji firstly expressed warm welcome to President Bao Xinhe. Bao expressed his gratitude for the important role which Purple Mountain Observatory played in the rapid development of space science and technology of USTC. He said that, the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) “Wukong” mainly developed by Prof. Chang Jin has made a great breakthrough recently, and has become a flag of the Purple Mountain Observatory, as well as USTC. Subsequently, Kong Xu and Yang Ji respectively introduced the latest progress of the construction of the 2.5m optical telescope. Bao Xinhe said that construction of the telescope was a big science project, and was of great significance to both sides. He hoped that the excellent researchers of both sides would work together to start the pre-research as soon as possible.