China Icebreaker to Sail for Arctic Seas

China sending icebreaker to Barents Sea for first time

Growing interest in the Arctic and tne Northern Passage includes China. The Chinese icebreaker "Xue Long" sets sail on an Arctic mission this summer and Beijing hopes the massive icebreaker will reach the Barents Sea before returning in September. “If the expedition goes according to the plan it will also be the first time for a Chinese icebreaker to reach the Barents Sea,”  Liu Cigui, director of China’s State Oceanic Administration told the Chinese official news agency Xinhua.

Scientists aboard will carry out oceanic, atmospheric, sea-ice and marine life research along the Northern Sea Route. The icebreaker has earlier sailed the Northwest Passage and done research in the Arctic waters outside the coast of Alaska and Canada.

In addition to sending the icebreaker "Xue Long" (Snow Dragon) along the north coast of Siberia towards the Barents Sea, Beijing will also send Arctic researchers to the Yellow River Station on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.