Accompanied by Li Dezhu and other related persons, the Ambassador with his wife visited Southwest China Germplasm Bank of Wild Species and the Herberium of KIB and signed on the Herberium guestbook. The Ambassador William Ehrman highly appraised the fruits achieved by KIB in the fields of botanical research and germplasm bank construction. He hoped that KIB could keep on close cooperation with UK related institutions of botanical research and jointly promote the preservation of plant resources and botanical research of two sides.

　　Previously, William Ehrman and his party visited Lijiang Alpine Botanical Garden built by Sino-British in Lijiang,Yunnan. This garden, cooperatively re-established by Kunming Institute of Botany, the  Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh of UK and Lijiang Alpine Economic Plants Institution of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is a research base for the purpose of plant germplasm conservation as well as a germplasm resources nursery of southwest  germplasm bank of Wild Species in alpine and sub-alpine areas, and plays an significant role in the germplasm collection, preservation and rejuvenation research work.