From 1927 to 1930, he participated in the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang with Sven Hedin and Xu Xusheng.

In 1928 and 1930, he worked in Turfan with other members of Hedin’s expedition, while also studying Gaochang and the cave monasteries, Bezeklik in particular.

As a member of the Central Committee for the Preservation of Antiquities, he was stationed in Xi'an to be a director to research the Stele Forest from 1935.

In 1947, he returned to Beijing, where he worked in the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the People’s Republic of China.

He conducted a number of further archeological research trips to the western regions from 1950, in particular exploring the historic city of Gaochang.