China's First Domestically Built Polar Icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, Begins Its Maiden Voyage on Sept 10, 2018

China's first domestically built polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, begins its maiden voyage on Sept 10, 2018. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

China's first domestically built polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, begins its maiden voyage on Sept 10, 2018

The beginning of the maiden voyage of China's first domestically built polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, on Sept 10, 2018, was a breakthrough in the on-site security and supporting capacity of the country's polar research.

Designed and manufactured by China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited, Xuelong 2 is 122.5 meters with a total displacement of 13,990 tons. It is able to continuously break the ice and navigate through 1.5-meter-thick ice and 0.2-meters of snow with a speed of two to three knots.

Xuelong 2 can navigate in the non-restricted waters and has global navigation capacity, making it an internationally advanced polar research icebreaker that can safely travel in oceans within polar regions.

The icebreaker, with strong maneuver capability, can flexibly rotate 360 degrees and can break a 20-meter first-year ice ridge. 

Beipan River Bridge, the world's highest, is completed on Sept 10, 2016

Beipan River Bridge, the world's highest, was completed on Sept 10, 2016.

Designed and constructed by China Communications Construction Company Limited, the bridge is a section of the Bijie-Duge Expressway and has a vertical height of 565 meters, equal to a 200-storey building.

The hoisting of the truss was conducted with cantilever technology which has higher accuracy and better safety and leaves more adjustment space.

It takes only over an hour to travel from Xuanwei, Yunnan Province to Liupanshui, Guizhou Province since the bridge opened to traffic, about four hours faster than before.

Zhengzhou-Xuzhou High-speed Railway opens to traffic on Sept 10, 2016

The Zhengzhou-Xuzhou High-speed Railway opened to traffic on Sept 10, 2016, meaning that the distance of China's high-speed railway in operation has reached more than 20,000 kilometers.

The 360-kilometer railway starts from Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province and terminates at Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province.

Since the opening, travel time between Zhengzhou and Xuzhou had shortened to 1.5 hours and only four hours is needed to travel from Zhengzhou to Shanghai.

The Zhengzhou-Xuzhou High-speed Railway connects to the Zhengzhou-Xi'an, Xi'an-Baoji, Lanzhou-Urumqi and Baoji-Lanzhou high-speed railways, forming an Eurasia Land Bridge transportation passage with high standards and strong transportation capacity.

Meanwhile, the railway has also linked with other high-speed railways like the Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou lines, which has improved China's high-speed railway network and shortened travel time between western regions and middle and eastern China.

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)