After graduating in 1966, Shi joined a team researching the Western Xia caves at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in Gansu, and based on his translation of Tangut inscriptions in the caves he was able to identify a large number of caves as dating to the period during which Dunhuang was governed by the Western Xia regime (1036–1226).
Shi'a | Qin Shi Huang | Shi'ite | Shi'a Islam | Shi Zhecun | Shi Le | Shi Nai'an | Imamah (Shi'a twelver doctrine) | Xi Shi | Twelver Shi'ah Islam | Shi Yunsheng | Shi Ren | Shi'ism | Shi'i Muslim | Shi'i | Chen Shi | Chae Shi-ra | The Children of Huang Shi | Sima Shi | Shi Xiu | Shi Wen-long | Shi Wancheng | Shi Qing | Shi Qian | shi (poetry) | Shi Pei Pu | Shi Meiyu | Shi Liang | Shi-Kuo Chang | Shi Kefa |
During 1989–1990 she spent a year at the Minzu University of China in Beijing, where she worked with Chinese Tangutologists, including as Shi Jinbo, Bai Bin and Li Fanwen.