China’s ice breaker begins latest Antarctic expedition

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‍China's 34th Antarctic expedition began on Wednesday when the research ice breaker Xuelong - Chinese for Snow Dragon - set sail from Shanghai.

A team of more than 300 will make the 164-day, 37,000-nautical mile trip. They are expected to return to Shanghai in April next year.

The ice breaker will arrive in New Zealand to stock up on supplies in around 18 days. It will then sail south to the west coast of the Ross Sea, where researchers will conduct preliminary work on China's fifth station in the Antarctic, one of the key objectives of this expedition.

Xuelong on China's 30th Antarctic expedition on December 1, 2013 /Xinhua Photo

The fifth station will be a year-round research station able to independently carry out multiple scientific investigations in the Antarctic. It is said to be finished in the next five years, according to Yang Huigen, director of the Polar Research Institute of China who also leads the expedition team.

According to Yang, researchers will also conduct other tasks during the trip such as observations of the land, ocean, the atmosphere, ice shelves and biology of the area. Establishing an observation and monitoring network in the Antarctic and surveying the marine environmental protection is also part of the trip.

Xuelong is currently China's only polar icebreaker in service. In October, it completed the country's eighth Arctic expedition.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency