The cooperation between Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids was initiated immediately after the research field Inorganic Chemistry (headed by Rudiger Kniep) started its work in Dresden. The first contact was established when Zhao Jingtai came from the Xiamen University as a Max Planck fellow. At that time, the chemistry of the intermetallic compounds of rare-earth metals was chosen as a topic of joint investigations with Yuri Grin. Later, the solid state chemistry of the borophosphates was added to the program of concerted research in the group of Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. The cooperation was intensified after the move of Zhao Jingtai to the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics and the establishment of an Inorganic Materials Chemistry and Physics Group there. The results of the investigations performed from 1999 to 2003 were published in more than 25 scientific papers and more than ten contributions to scientific conferences. The cooperation between Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids was initiated immediately after the research field Inorganic Chemistry (headed by Rudiger Kniep) started its work in Dresden. The first contact was established when Zhao Jingtai came from the Xiamen University as a Max Planck fellow. At that time, the chemistry of the intermetallic compounds of rare-earth metals was chosen as a topic of joint investigations with Yuri Grin. Later, the solid state chemistry of the borophosphates was added to the program of concerted research in the group of Zhao Jingtai and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids. The cooperation was intensified after the move of Zhao Jingtai to the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics and the establishment of an Inorganic Materials Chemistry and Physics Group there. The results of the investigations performed from 1999 to 2003 were published in more than 25 scientific papers and more than ten contributions to scien tific conferences.