Twenty years have passed since China first started scientific investigation on the South Pole in 1984. As Wei Wenliang, vice director of polar research for the State Oceanic Administration, said, "Through 20 years of effort, China has made great progress in scientific team-building, scientific observation, and logistics support. China's achievements have been acknowledged by counterparts around the world."

  China's Antarctic Strategy

Although a latecomer to Antarctic research -- dozens of years behind developed countries -- China first developed its macroscopic Antarctic strategy in the early 1960s.

When the State Oceanic Administration was established in 1966, one of its main tasks was to carry out Antarctic research at the proper time.

In 1983, the National People's Congress , China's top legislature, passed a resolution to join the Antarctic Treaty as a formal member country. A year later, the country drew up its 12-year plan for expeditions to the region, to be undertaken according to the development of the nation's economy.
China dispatched its first national Antarctic expedition in late 1984, and in February 1985, the Great Wall Station was opened on King George Island, one of the South Shetland Islands in western Antarctica. Located at the 62 degrees south latitude line, the station didn't make it into the polar circle.

"When we built the station, China was not yet capable of building on the coastal Antarctic continent," recalled Wei.

In 1988, China's first East Antarctica expedition set out on its long journey and established the China Antarctic Zhongshan Station in the next year on the continent, in the eastern sector at the Larsemann Hills.

"When China set up a station on the continent, it was entitled to become a negotiating country of the Antarctic Treaty, having a say in decisions related to Antarctic affairs," Wei said.

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