China's polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, departs from the Shekou cruise home port in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Oct. 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

Xuelong 2 will sail to the Zhongshan Station before conducting research in the Cosmonauts Sea and China's Great Wall Station. It is expected to return in late March 2020.

SHENZHEN, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's first domestically made polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, set off on its maiden voyage for the country's 36th Antarctic expedition from Shenzhen on Tuesday afternoon.

Icebreaker Xuelong will also join the expedition, making it the first time that two polar icebreakers work together on China's Antarctic expedition.

Xuelong 2 will sail to the Zhongshan Station before conducting research in the Cosmonauts Sea and China's Great Wall Station. It is expected to return in late March 2020.

Xuelong will set sail from Shanghai on Oct. 22 to the Zhongshan Station and then conduct a series of surveys and engineering projects in the Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea. It is expected to return to Shanghai port in mid-April 2020.

The expedition consisting of 413 team members will conduct multidisciplinary observations on the sea, atmosphere, ice shelf and biology. They will also conduct preliminary construction work of China's fifth research station on Inexpressible Island, according to Qin Weijia, director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration. ■