Studies on frozen soil mechanics in China in past 50 years and their prospect

China has a land area of 2.15 million km² covered by permafrost and is named as a third permafrost giant in the world, but it is relative later to systematically study the permafrost, especially the frozen soil mechanics. Since the 1950s, many studies have been carried out to investigate the characteristic of frozen soils for the economic and social development in permafrost regions. The achievements of the frozen soil mechanics in the stress-strain relationship, constitutive modeling, thermal-moisture process, frozen soil-structure interaction and test methods in China are reviewed, and the development trend for studies on the frozen soil mechanics study is predicted according to its subject characteristics, construction demand and the development trend of related subjects.