In this thesis, the authors first give a brief introduction to open distance education and its developmentin china, and analyze and summarize its inherent nature and unique advantages. Then they take the development of open distance education in shaanxi as a living example to illustrste the authors’ opinion that opendistance education is the first choice for educational development in remote areas from five aspects both theoretically and practically. The five aspects are the urgency, inevitability, possibility, feasibility for the prior development of open distance education in remote regions. Finally, they put forWard some suggestions on thedevelopment of open distance education in RTVU (mode in remote areas. At the same time, they believe thatopen distance education will play an even more important part in training various kinds of badly needed talented Persons for remote regions and improving the scientific and cultural qUality of the whole nation with anewer face.
