The International Geochemical Exploration Symposium takes place every two years,and is generally held afternatively in North America and Western Europe. The 16th Symposium was the first conference that was held in China and also in Asia. For the purpose of understanding more of China’s achievements in geochemical exploration by foreign geologists, it was decided that the symposium would be held successively with the 5th All-China Symposium on Exploration Geochemistry at the same place. The present paper gives a very general account of the five workshops held before the symposium, the opening ceremony of the symposium, the three plenary lectures,and the nine technical sessions on special topics and also a poster session. From the present paper the readers my get some idea about the international development trend of geochemical exploration work, the contribution and influence of China’s geochemical exploration in the international circles, and also the profound bearings of tnts symposium on the development of geochemical exploration in China.