The Chinese exploration vessel Xuelong arrived in Buenos Aires
on Thursday to ferry goods for a Chinese scientific expedition team
to the Antarctic.
The Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, now halfway through its mission,
will pick up additional supplies for the largest-ever expansion
projects of China's Zhongshan and Changcheng Stations in the
Antarctic, which were built in the 1980s.
A member of the Chinese scientific
expedition team stands in the cabin of "Xuelong" and?takes
photographs of the scenery at Buenos Aires, the capital and largest
city of Argentina, on Thursday, January 24, 2008.
The expansion of Zhongshan includes the construction of a new dock
and the leveling of a high-frequency radar field. At Changcheng, a
scientific research building, a recreational center and garbage and
sewage treatment facilities will be built.
The ship will also carry supplies for South Korean and Argentine
expedition teams under an international logistic cooperation
program.
The Xuelong left the Changcheng Station on Jan. 18 for Buenos
Aires on its first trip to the Argentine capital.
The ship set off from China's eastern city of Shanghai in
November 2007 for the Antarctic expedition.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2008)
