TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18969 SUBJECT: GRB 160131A: Xinglong/BFOSC spectroscopy DATE: 16/02/01 03:38:02 GMT FROM: Dong Xu at NAOC/CAS D. Xu, L.-P. Xin, J. Wang (NAOC/CAS) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the optical afterglow of GRB 160131A (e.g., Page et al., GCN 18951; Yurkov et al., GCN 18952; Guidorzi et al., GCN 18953; Xin et al., GCN 18954) using the 2.16m telescope located at Xinglong, Heibei, China, equipped with the BFOSC camera. A 2400s spectrum was acquired with the G4+385LP grism covering the range of 3500 - 8500 AA, starting at 13:49:08 UT on 2016-01-31. The spectrum shows a continuum across the whole range, superimposed with absorption features of Mg II, Ca II H+K at a common redshift of 0.97, being consistent with measurements by Malesani et al. (GCN 18965) and de Ugarte Postigo et al. (GCN 18966). We thank the excellent support of the Xinlong 2.16m staff, in particular Meng Zhai and Junjun Jia.