China's domestically built icebreaker makes debut

China's new generation of domestically designed and manufactured icebreaking scientific research ship, Jidi, made its debut on Friday. 

Painted red and white, the scientific research ship is 89 meters long and 17.8 meters wide, equivalent to three standard basketball courts connected side by side. The ship has the ability to sail in unlimited navigation areas around the world, with a capacity of 60 crew members and a displacement of 5,600 tons. The ship's sailing distance is 26,000 kilometers, and can carry supplies to remain at sea for more than 80 days. 

The ship is unique in that it can carry domestic drones, unmanned ships and underwater autonomous robots at the same time. Relying on China's domestic satellite network system, it is equipped with integrated air-space-sea-ice-submersible scientific research capabilities, simultaneously completing multi-subject comprehensive scientific research missions including the air, sea ice, water bodies, and geophysics.

China has to date conducted 39 Antarctic scientific explorations since 1984 and 12 Arctic quests since 1999, accumulating rich scientific experience through survey findings.