On August 25-September 6, Shizhen and Gan were invited to attend the 16th SETAC Latin /America meeting, which was held in Lima of Peru. They also formally visited the National Agricultural University of Peru, to deliver lectures and discuss about potential collaborations. This is their second visit to South America. Shizhen gave a talk on the SETAC meeting on tire-wear particles and microplastics, which attracted lots of attention. Gan had to man a poster prepared nicely by Yuwei, on HV-POPs. Gan met his old friend, Professor Ricardo Barra who is a ‘big name’ for POPs research in South America and Chili , to recall their last meet at Seoul some 12 years ago. Upon the invitation, as planned, of Professor Litveth, Gan gave a lecture over the staffs and students of the National Agricultural University, introducing the environmental research in SKLAET-GIG, with particular promotion of our long-term efforts on global atmospheric monitoring of POPs in developing countries. In between the academic meetings, we also take chance to visit the Peru plateau of the Andes （安第斯山脉的秘鲁高原）where there are exciting historical relics and spectacular natural sceneries. One of our main targets was the ancient terraced crop field left by the Incas（古印加人）, some last for hundreds and even more than a thousand years. It was a pity that, as these ancient fields are strictly protected, we were not able to collect soil samples for Jiang Fan’s study. However, Professor Litveth happily offered help to us with this topic in future collaboration. Notwithstanding, we succeeded in collecting a few saline water samples from an ancient Inca salt field. Despite the tough experience in the long trans-continent flights, it does is a great and enjoyable trip.
