[That Day] 13 years ago today, China's third Antarctic scientific research station, Kunlun Station, was completed

On January 27, 2009, China's third Antarctic research station, Kunlun Station, was officially completed. Since then, the Chinese have occupied the commanding heights of the Antarctic interior, achieving a leapfrog development in China's Antarctic research.

Antarctica is a sacred land that people yearn for and is full of magic. There are magnificent icebergs, unchanging ice fields and beautiful and lovely animals. When you set foot on this land, your soul will be greatly shocked, and you will remember every minute and second here deeply. Xinhua News Agency reporters followed the 25th Chinese Antarctic Scientific Expedition and experienced various difficulties and setbacks. They also witnessed the completion of Kunlun Station and felt the profound meaning of the Antarctic spirit with "patriotism, truth-seeking, innovation and hard work" as its core connotation.

As the 25th Chinese Antarctic Scientific Expedition is the most demanding, largest number of passengers and largest amount of cargo among all previous expeditions, the Xuelong set sail for Antarctica one month earlier than usual. On October 20, 2008, the 25th Chinese Antarctic Scientific Expedition, which undertook the task of building China's first inland scientific research station, the Kunlun Station, set sail from Shanghai to the Zhongshan Station in Antarctica on the Xuelong.

More than 40 crew members, led by Captain Wang Jianzhong, carefully cared for and drove the Xuelong to ensure the successful completion of the expedition. Along the way, everything went so smoothly, arriving at 68 degrees 52 minutes and 10 seconds south latitude, 2 days ahead of schedule, at the edge of the fixed sea ice in Prydz Bay, 57 kilometers north of Zhongshan Station in Antarctica. Right here, a natural barrier stood in front of the Xuelong, which caused the Xuelong to encounter the most serious "obstruction" since my country's Antarctic scientific expedition. The complex sea ice made it difficult for the Xuelong to move forward. At the most difficult time, it only advanced 60 meters a day.

In 2008, the amount of snowfall in the Zhongshan Station area was much higher than in previous years. In November alone, there were 23 days of snowfall, more than double the previous years. In recent days, strong winds and snowfalls have occurred alternately. After several heavy snowfalls, the sea ice near the shore was covered with 70 centimeters of snow. The thick snow "protected" the sea ice like a quilt, which not only increased the difficulty of the "Xuelong" icebreaking, but also brought great difficulties to judging the sea ice conditions. The continuous bad weather made it impossible to carry out helicopter lifting operations, and the unloading work was delayed for 21 days.

On December 3, 2008, inland team members were working at the inland assembly point. Photo by Yu Jianbin

(Picture from People's Daily Online)

In order to reach Zhongshan Station as soon as possible, Captain Wang Jianzhong used the bridge as his dormitory. During the most difficult stage of the "Xuelong" breaking ice, he stayed on the bridge almost all day, staring at the sea ice with a telescope, and personally steered the "Xuelong" to break the ice. During this period, how to ensure that the "Xuelong" maintained the maximum power to break through the sea ice was a big test for the crew of the engine department. However, it is easy to wedge into the ice from the front, just like a nail inserted into a cork, and the excessive speed of icebreaking makes it easy for the hull to enter the ice and difficult to retreat. Frequent high-power retreat puts a great burden on the propeller tail shaft of the Xuelong. After summarizing the experience of many ship jams, the "Xuelong" adopted the icebreaking method of opening two channels at the same time to advance forward and backward, like a person moving, alternating between the left and right channels. On the 22nd, with the arduous efforts of all the crew, they finally walked out of this 3.7-kilometer-wide overlapping ice belt. Supported by the maximum horsepower, the "appetite" of the "Xuelong" is also quite amazing-it consumes nearly 50 tons of oil in one day!

Yang Huigen, leader of the 25th Antarctic Expedition, said: "What is more serious is that the meltwater from the snow and the high temperature of the sea water this season have accelerated the melting of the sea ice. The results of the ice detection specially organized by the expedition team show that the sea ice outward from Zhongshan Station is all wet sea ice, and the strength of the sea ice has been greatly reduced, which has greatly increased the safety threats and risks of the expedition team's ice unloading operations."

Since it was impossible to carry out transportation on the ice, and in order to ensure that the inland ice sheet team building the Kunlun Station could depart for Dome A as soon as possible, the transportation of personnel and unloading of materials by the expedition team almost entirely relied on aviation operations. The Chinese and Korean helicopter groups used all weather windows to carry out the lifting of materials for the construction of the Kunlun Station. Those whose weight exceeded the helicopter's transportation capacity would be disassembled and then transported to Zhongshan Station by helicopter for reassembly. During the more than 10 days of inland material assembly work, the inland team members unloaded and loaded goods at the assembly site, and often worked until the early morning before returning to Zhongshan Station to rest. After days of outdoor work, each team member, except for the eyes, retained their original skin color, and other parts of their bodies were sunburned to varying degrees, and became much darker. The environment will be even worse after going deeper into the inland.

Li Yuansheng, leader of the inland ice sheet team of the 25th Antarctic expedition, said: "All 28 members of the inland team have undergone a series of rigorous assessments, including physical examinations, psychological tests, and plateau adaptability training. They will overcome difficulties such as high altitude and low oxygen to complete tasks such as station construction and exploration."

From Zhongshan Station to Dome A, a distance of nearly 1,300 kilometers, they experienced the troublesome soft snow belt and unfathomable ice cracks. It took them 19 days and nights to drive 8 snowmobiles and tow 44 sleds to transport all the station construction, scientific research and logistical materials to the Kunlun Station construction site, the highest point of Dome A, in the early morning of January 7, 2009 Beijing time.

After arriving at Dome A, the inland ice sheet expedition team immediately devoted themselves to the construction of Kunlun Station, overcoming severe challenges such as frostbite, altitude sickness, and physical decline in the high-altitude hypoxia and strong ultraviolet radiation environment of the inland ice sheet. Relying on the excellent technology acquired through repeated assembly in China, they successfully solved the problems of soft snow foundation and extreme low temperature construction on the ice sheet plateau. On January 27, 2009, the main building project of Kunlun Station was completed in accordance with the design requirements, regaining the lost time in the early stage of the expedition and successfully completing the station construction task. At the same time, a Chinese tripod "Tian Ding" embodying Chinese cultural characteristics was placed at Dome A, the highest point of the Antarctic inland ice sheet.

Introduction to China's Antarctic Kunlun Station

China's Antarctic Kunlun Station is my country's first inland Antarctic research station and the highest-altitude research station built by humans in the Antarctic region. Kunlun Station was built on January 27, 2009. It is located in the Antarctic inland ice dome A area (80°25'01"S, 77°06'58"E), 1,258 kilometers away from Zhongshan Station, with an average altitude of 4,090 meters, ice thickness of 3,500 meters, an average annual temperature of -58.4℃, a minimum temperature of -82℃, and strong ultraviolet intensity.

The existing building area is 402 square meters, which can accommodate 20 people in the summer. It mainly carries out scientific research in glaciology, astronomy, geophysics, atmospheric science, space physics, etc., and supports major projects such as deep ice core drilling and astronomical telescope construction.

With the successful construction of Kunlun Station, my country's first inland Antarctic scientific research station, China has left a permanent mark in the Antarctic Dome A area, which is known as the "inaccessible pole for mankind". Looking back on the history of my country's Antarctic scientific expeditions, from the Great Wall Station on King George Island to the Zhongshan Station in the Larsman Hills area and then to the Kunlun Station in the Dome A area, the highest point of the Antarctic inland ice sheet, in the past 25 years, China has achieved leapfrog development in the polar cause from scratch, from small to large, and from large to strong, so that the bright five-star red flag is also flying in the core area of ​​the Antarctic ice sheet.