High altitude medicine in China in the 21st century: opportunities and challenges

China has the largest plateau, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where inhabited the most high altitude populations. Moreover, millions of people from plain areas come to the plateau for travel and work purposes and the number of the newcomers has been increasing every year. The hypoxic environment of plateau raised a series of related health issues in the new immigrants, so have created a special medical discipline - High Altitude Medicine. Over the past decades, researches on high altitude medicine have never being ceased in China, and lots of research findings have been reported. Application and practice of these achievements have greatly decreased the mobility and mortality of high-altitude diseases, however, there remained lots of questions to be elucidated. In view of this, the authors were granted a special project from the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, and conducted a multi-center, prospective, on-scene high altitude medicine study for the acute mountain sickness. Some innovative findings were achieved, and the parameters for diagnosis and application conditions were proposed. Furthermore, the different diagnoses and treatment effects were compared, and a more standardized, reasonable scheme was drawn up. Regarding the unbalanced medical resources in the vast high altitude area, an application system for the public and the army has been established. In the 21st century, innovations in China and novel research approaches have provided great opportunities for the development of high altitude medicine. It is believed that the researchers in China are able to catch the opportunities and address the challenges.