China's first Mars simulation base will be built in Qinghai province, according to a report by China News Service on Wednesday.

A symposium on the overall design of the base and a contract signing ceremony were held on Tuesday, the report said.

The base will be built in Qaidam Basin in the Dachaidan Hongya region of the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan autonomous prefecture, a remote area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The area's landforms, natural landscape and climate conditions closely resemble those of Mars, said Wang Jingzhai, the prefecture's deputy Party chief.