Funded by the Bavarian University Centre for China (BayChina), Professor Sauer and Stefan Wimmer travelled to China from 5-13 December for the sixth time to deepen research cooperations and enhance project applications. The group was supported by Benz Xinqi Zhu, whose research focus lies in bioeconomy, a field which becomes increasingly important in China. During the research trip, the three scientists visited the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Renmin University in Beijing, Shandong Agricultural University (Tai'an, Shandong), Northwest A&F University (Yangling, Shaanxi), Sichuan Agricultural University (Chengdu, Sichuan) and Tongji University in Shanghai. In collaboration with partners from the established network, the group aims to analyse data of smallholder farms in order to empirically investigate Chinas sustainability in food and energy production and derive potentials for improvement.