This Day, That Year

40 years on

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

Since the Chinese Antarctic expedition team laid a foundation stone on King George Island for the country’s first Antarctic research station in January 1985, the country has achieved remarkable progress in South Pole exploration.

China signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1983, and since then the country has sent 34 Antarctic expedition teams and built four research stations on the frozen continent — Great Wall in 1985, Zhongshan in 1989, Kunlun in 2009 and Taishan in 2014.

A fifth is under construction on the Ross Sea Ice Shelf.

In 1984, China organized its first Antarctic expedition. Following that, the country has conducted Antarctic expeditions every year. In January 2014,

Xuelong, China’s only icebreaker for polar expeditions, rescued 52 people who had been stranded since late December on a Russian research ship.

The country’s first homebuilt icebreaker by Jiangnan Shipyard Co is expected to put into service next year.

In 2016, the country’s first fixed-wing aircraft in the Antarctic, Xueying 601, was put into service, greatly enhancing the logistical capacity of Chinese Antarctic expeditions.

The Polar Research Institute of China of the State Oceanic Administration unveiled a plan early last year to begin site selection and a survey of the country’s first airfield construction in Antarctica in 2018.