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The Snow Dragon Polar Research Vessel
The Snow Dragon polar research vessel, also called the Snow Dragon, is the third generation of polar ice-breaker ships and scientific investigation ships which was modeled on an ice-breaker ship of Ukraine in 1993. The Snow Dragon can break the 1.2 meter-ice layer at the speed of 1.2 navigational speed. This ship has been to the Antarctic region 31 times. Up to July 2014, the ship had been to the Arctic region 6 times to perform investigation and supply transportation tasks.
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China Starts Construction of 1st Polar Research Icebreaker

The vessel is scheduled to be completed in 2019, when it is expected to team-up with research vessel and icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon). Xuelong is currently China's only icebreaker carrying out polar research expeditions. Yang Huigen, head of the institute, said the move would improve the nation's capabilities in supporting polar expeditions and surveying the polar marine environment. On completion, the new vessel alongside veteran Xuelong will give China's polar research more diversified services.

Xuelong

Xuelong, the Snow Dragon, is the icebreaker of the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC). It is the largest non-nuclear powered icebreaker in the world. It was built as an ice-strengthened cargo ship, in Ukraine in 1993 but is now a floating laboratory with state of the art facilities and equipment for polar research. It was modified in 1994. The Xuelong is 167m long, almost 23 meters wide and the ice class is B1 level, it can break through 1.1m of ice, including 20cm of snow by 1,5 knots continously. It is both a supply vessel for the four research stations PRIC has, one in Svalbard and three in Antarctica, and a scientific research platform in both Poles.

Chinese Research Vessel Departs for the Arctic

Xuelong (Snow Dragon), China’s polar research vessel, left Shanghai on Monday for the Arctic, the country’s seventh expedition to the polar region. Scientists on board will undertake research on marine chemistry, ecology, geology, geophysics and sea ice dynamics with the aim of determining how rapid changes in sea ice in the Arctic will affect China’s climate. They will release submerged buoys and radio balloons which have been fitted with GPS to collect a range of long-term data. The worst blizzard to hit South China in 50 years occurred in 2008, and snowstorms in North China and other Asian countries in subsequent years have been proved to be associated with the decrease of sea ice in the Arctic, said Liu Na, a researcher with the State Oceanic Administration.

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1 Xue Long,literally Snow Dragon,is a Chinese icebreaking research vessel.

2 China's Antarctic research ship the Xue Long broke free from the ice and entered a safe zone yesterday after a 14-hour struggle.

3 he Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, is blocked by thick ice after successfully transferred passengers aboard stranded Russian science vessel.