40 years ago, on February 20, the inauguration ceremony was held on the Fields Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica, my country's first Antarctic expedition station, China's Antarctic Great Wall Station.

Now, Great Wall Station has ushered in its "forty years".

40 years ago, why did we have to build the Great Wall Station in Antarctica? What difficulties and obstacles have been overcome during the website building process?

In the early 1980s, Antarctica became a hot spot for global scientific investigations. 18 countries established more than 40 permanent scientific investigation bases in Antarctica, and China did not have an Antarctic scientific investigation station.

Guo Kun, the first stationmaster of China's Antarctic Great Wall Station, said: "Whether to build a website in Antarctica is a matter that concerns our country's honor and disgrace and national dignity."

In September 1983, the Chinese government sent an Antarctic delegation to attend the 12th National Congress of the Antarctic Treaty held in Canberra, Australia.

Guo Kun recalled that when the conference was about to vote on the agenda, the president of the conference knocked the wooden hammer - asking non-negotiation countries to withdraw from the venue and go outside the venue to have coffee. Every time I heard this sentence, I felt a sense of humiliation. "Why? It's because you don't have a station in Antarctica." In order to fill this gap, on June 25, 1984, the State Council officially approved the construction of China's first scientific investigation station-Great Wall Station in Antarctica.

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Breaking the Ice-Breaking Mile

The Great Wall Station illuminates the first stop of the Antarctic scientific expedition in China

On November 20, 1984, an Antarctic scientific expedition team composed of 591 people including scientists, construction workers, etc. took the "Xiangyanghong 10" ship and the "J121" ship, set off from Shanghai and embarked on the journey to Antarctica.

After 40 days of drifting at sea, the scientific expedition team successfully boarded King George Island on December 30, 1984.

Every time I talk about the website building process back then, my witnesses are filled with emotion.

Ding Haitao, a researcher at the Polar Expedition Station of the China Polar Research Center, said: "When I first arrived at King George Island, the materials were transferred to land, and a temporary dock had to be built."

While there were various mechanical equipment now, they soaked their bodies directly in the sea water, which was equivalent to building a human wall to ensure that the newly built dock was not eroded by the waves.

Although there are waterproof clothing, at this temperature, 38 team members work in four shifts, and one person can only work for 10 minutes at a time. If they are immersed in the sea water for a long time, they will lose their temperature. In order to build a website, these team members may not even care about their lives.

The team members overcame many difficulties such as blizzards and permafrost, and completed the website construction task in just 27 days.

On February 20, 1985, the Great Wall Station was officially completed, and the five-star red flag was flying over Antarctica. This feat not only created the fastest speed for countries to build websites in Antarctica, but also marked that China had its first foothold in Antarctica, and my country's polar investigation career has since begun.

Subsequently, my country officially became a consultative country on the Antarctic Treaty and officially had the right to speak on the international Antarctic governance stage.

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