China's first domestically-built polar research vessel and icebreaker "Xuelong 2" prepares to take water at Jiangnan Shipyard in Chongming's Changxing Island in Shanghai, China, 10 September 2018. China's first wholly domestically conceived and built icebreaker Xuelong 2 took to the sea on Monday (10 September 2018) at Jiangnan Shipyard in Chongming's Changxing Island. Construction of the vessel began in December 20, 2016. Xuelong 2 will be put into service in the first half of 2019. It will team up with another icebreaker Xuelong on polar expeditions next year. The vessel is 122.5 meters in length and 22.3 meters wide, with a draught of 7.85 meters and displacement of 13, 990 tons. It can reach 15 knots and it has a range of 20, 000 nautical miles. Xuelong 2 can break 1.5-meter ice with a thick covering of snow at speeds of 2 to 3 knots. Its combines the requirements of a new-generation research vessel with environmental protection having an azimuthing electric propulsion system. Researchers can make observations of environmental elements like the ocean water, sea ice and polar air from the vessel and take samples from the marine environment in connection with climate change.
