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)