Zhongshan Station () is the second
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
research station in
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
and was opened on February 26, 1989.
Overview
''Zhongshan Station'' is named after
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
, who served as the
provisional first president of the Republic of China in 1912.
Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station
2019-10-15. Retrieved 2020-04-08. It is managed by the Polar Research Institute of China
The Polar Research Institute of China () (PRIC) is the main Chinese research institute for the study of Earth's polar regions. It is based in Shanghai, China.
The Institute manages five polar research stations (four in Antarctica and one in the A ...
(PRIC). It is located in the Larsemann Hills
The Larsemann Hills are a series of low rounded coastal hills along the southeastern shore of Prydz Bay, Antarctica extending for from Dålk Glacier. They were discovered in February 1935 by Captain Klarius Mikkelsen from the whaling ship ''Tho ...
by Prydz Bay
Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glacie ...
in East Antarctica
East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...
, and is near the Russian Progress II Station and the Romanian Law-Racoviță-Negoiță Station
The Law-Racoviță-Negoiță Station ( ro, Stația Law-Racoviță-Negoiță), known only as the Law-Racoviță Station () until 2011, is the first Romanian station for research and exploration in Antarctica, named after the Romanian explorer Emil ...
.
The station can accommodate 60 summering personnel and 25 wintering personnel. It is a base for research on marine, glaciological, geological, and atmospheric sciences and for expeditions inland, such as to the Kunlun Station
Kunlun Station () is the southernmost of four Chinese research stations in Antarctica. When it is occupied during the summer, it is the second-southernmost research base in Antarctica, behind only the American Amundsen–Scott South Pole Statio ...
at Dome A
Dome A or Dome Argus is the loftiest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau, located inland. It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth, with temperatures believed to reach . It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica, consis ...
. It is supplied by annual visits of the support vessel '' Xue Long''.
History
Four years after establishing the Great Wall Station
The Great Wall Station () is the first Chinese research station in Antarctica and opened on 20 February 1985. It lies on the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island, and is about from the Chilean Frei Montalva Station, and from Cape Horn. The ...
, China's first research base in Antarctica, Guo Kun
Guo Kun (; September 1935 – 3 April 2019) was a Chinese polar explorer. He led China's first expedition to Antarctica in 1984–1985 and participated in seven Antarctic expeditions in total. He led the construction of China's first two Antarcti ...
led another expedition to Antarctica, with the mission to establish a second base. The team set out from Qingdao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
in November 1988 on the ship ''Jidi''. After reaching Prydz Bay
Prydz Bay is a deep embayment of Antarctica between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. The Bay is at the downstream end of a giant glacial drainage system that originates in the East Antarctic interior. The Lambert Glacie ...
in Antarctica, the ship encountered a major icefall
An icefall is a portion of certain glaciers characterized by relatively rapid flow and chaotic crevassed surface, caused in part by gravity. The term ''icefall'' is formed by analogy with the word ''waterfall'', which is a similar phenomenon of t ...
in the night of 14 January 1989.Xu Shaoshi
Xu Shaoshi (; born October 1951) is a Chinese politician, and former Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China.
Xu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (C ...
, China's Minister for Land and Resources and Qu Tanzhou
Qu Tanzhou () is the director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.
In 2007 Qu Tanzhou was the director of China's Polar Office of the State Oceanic Administration.
According to ''The Age'' in January 2010 Qu Tanzhou was part of ...
, director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration
The Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (), often abbreviated as the CAA (previously the Chinese Antarctic Administration of the State Antarctic Research Committee), is a Beijing-based agency of the People's Republic of China's State Ocea ...
.[
]
See also
* List of Antarctic research stations
* List of Antarctic field camps
Many Antarctic research stations support satellite field camps which are, in general, seasonal camps. The type of field camp can vary – some are permanent structures used during the annual Antarctic summer, whereas others are little more than te ...
References
External links
Official website Polar Research Institute of China
COMNAP Antarctic Facilities
COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map
{{Antarctic research stations
Outposts of Antarctica
China and the Antarctic
Buildings and structures completed in 1989
Polar Research Institute of China
1989 establishments in Antarctica