Career
In 1932, he was transferred to Yunnan province, where he worked as a botanist in the province"s temperate climate. In 1938, he set up the Yunnan Botany Research Institute (云南农林植物研究所) in Heilongtan, and acted as the institute"s Vice President. In 1950, Cai Xitao was given charge of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chemical Abstracts Service), and in 1959 the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden) was established under his control.
He died on 9 March 1981.
Some of the specimens he collected are now part of the herbaria at Harvard University.
