With hundreds of people waving their hands and saying goodbye, the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, left the northern port city of Tianjin on Thursday for the country's 28th scientific expedition to Antarctica.

The 220-member expedition team, including two scholars from Taiwan, will carry out 31 scientific research tasks during the trip lasting around 160 days.

Antarctica survey telescope AST-3, independently designed by Chinese researchers, will be installed at Dome A, the continent's highest point at 4,093 meters above sea level.

According to Captain Shen Quan, the new instrument could enable his team to make new discoveries as the air in Antarctica is almost as clean as that of outer space.

Du Fujia, one of four freshmen crew members on the vessel, described the successful launch and operation of the telescope as the "biggest wish in our maiden trip to Antarctica."

Another important mission for the expedition is drilling deeper into the ice core, said Shen.

Li Yuansheng, head of the research team, said they plan to drill a hole 120 meters deep and install a device in the Antarctic ice sheet to take samples from an ice core that has existed for more than one million years.

Li explained that such samples play a significant role in studying climate change as they may help researchers analyze the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

The ship will also bring supplies to two of China's three Antarctic stations, and drop a team off at the third, Kunlun, located at the peak of the snow-covered continent.

With the exception of field surveys, crew members have to spend almost all their time on the icebreaker during the half-year trip, said Li.

Zhu Qi, a chef working aboard the Xuelong for the first time, said there are various dishes served on the icebreaker.

"We have porridge and pastry at breakfast time, and meat, vegetables and soup for lunch and supper. Dinner with more dishes and wine is served once a week. We follow a healthy diet with an appropriate amount of salt and oil," said Zhu, who used to be a chief chef of a hotel in Shanghai.

"But it is quite different to cook here and it usually takes a longer time because we use electricity instead of fire and most dishes are cooked in the oven."

Another thing making life tricky for the chefs is the lack of green vegetables. Since they could easily go bad, most of the vegetables have to be consumed in the first week of the voyage. A short stop in Australia would present the next opportunity to pick up fresh produce.

Bean sprouts are germinated, and dehydrated vegetables are offered during the trip as well as some pickled vegetables to ensure the crew get enough vitamins, said Zhu.

When in Antarctica, two TV sets in the dining hall of the ship will prove important. Programs from China's CCTV-4 and broadcasters from Chile and the Republic of Korea, will allow the crew to keep updated with information about the outside world.

All the garbage will be classified and stored in the icebreaker, and then shipped back in containers and disposed of in China.

According to captain Shen Quan, since the working environment in the Antarctic continent is very demanding both physically and psychologically, and the ship would encounter storms and other extreme weather on the way, crew members will inevitably feel lonely and restless during the long trip.

Activities such as singing contests, photography competitions and chess games will be held regularly on the icebreaker to help crew members keep mentally healthy, said Shen.

Kang Donghai, a new member of the crew said he is really looking forward to the icebreaker passing the equator, a time that all aboard would celebrate as it means they have finished half of their journey.

Xuelong, an A-2 class icebreaker capable of breaking ice 1.2 meters thick, is scheduled to arrive at the Zhongshan Station in early December and will move on to the Changcheng (Great Wall) Station at the beginning of next year, before returning to Zhongshan on February 18, 2012.

The icebreaker is expected to leave Antarctica on March 10, 2012, and return to Shanghai about one month later, covering an estimated 31,000 nautical miles during the expedition.

Before embarking, the ship was open to the public in Tianjin for two days, and attracted thousands of visitors.

China launched its first Antarctic expedition in 1984 and has established three stations there -- Changcheng, Zhongshan and Kunlun.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2011)