  The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), also
known as the Guoshoujing Telescope, is a major national scientific facility for
astronomical research located in Xinglong, China. Beginning with a pilot survey
in 2011, LAMOST has been surveying the night sky for more than 10 years. The
LAMOST survey covers various objects in the Universe, from normal stars to
peculiar ones, from the Milky Way to other galaxies, and from stellar black
holes and their companions to quasars that ignite ancient galaxies. Until the
latest data release 8, the LAMOST survey has released spectra for more than 10
million stars, ~220,000 galaxies, and ~71,000 quasars. With this largest
celestial spectra database ever constructed, LAMOST has helped astronomers to
deepen their understanding of the Universe, especially for our Milky Way galaxy
and the millions of stars within it. In this article, we briefly review the
characteristics, observations, and scientific achievements of LAMOST. In
particular, we show how astrophysical knowledge about the Milky Way has been
improved by LAMOST data.
