In the 1870s, the borders of the Russian Empire significantly expanded with the annexation of Turkestan territories. The vast spaces required development: it was necessary to build roads, establish communications, and found new cities. Numerous expeditions were organized to study the southern lands. Nikolai Przhevalsky raised a whole generation of outstanding explorers, among whom was the now little-known traveler Vsevolod Roborovsky.

Roborovsky set off on his first expedition in January 1879. His group traveled 347 versts from eastern Kazakhstan to the Huang He River through the waterless lands of Asia, then crossed the Tangla range at an altitude of 5000 meters and found themselves 300 versts from Lhasa. Roborovsky not only sought possible routes for road construction but also meticulously recorded information about plants, made sketches of camels and yaks, and inquired about the customs of the local people, often risking his own life. He recalled: "My passion for botany reached the point where I climbed mountains at great risk to obtain a flower that seemed impossible to reach. But if I had not seen it before, I exerted all my efforts: stones fell from under my feet, it seemed I would fall into the abyss, but I still managed to get the flower I was interested in."

Roborovsky's group planned to enter China, but a tragedy occurred. While waiting for an attack by the Tanguts, he fell asleep on watch and woke up with excruciating pain in his right leg. "I suffered with terrible pain until morning," the traveler recalled, "and found on my felt mat my enemy, a scorpion, dead. In my sleep, I had crushed it, for which it took its revenge on me." The expedition had to be aborted and return to Russia. On the way, Roborovsky completely lost sensation and spent the rest of his life in St. Petersburg. However, even a small part of his research provided a vast amount of material for the further development of Asian lands.