By Gao Yang

A few days ago, China’s 14th Arctic Ocean Scientific Expedition Team completed its task successfully, and returned successfully on ‘Xue Long 2’ polar scientific expedition icebreaker. As the second officer of ‘Xue Long 2’, Liu Yaqi, a teacher from School of Nautical Technology of Jiangsu Shipping College, completed the mission of ensuring the safety of the voyage and returned successfully with the team. Recently, he shared the trip to the Arctic Ocean with our reporter.

Aurora, glaciers, polar bears, seals...walking into the end of the world, the Arctic scenery was fully displayed in front of Liu Yaqi. Unlike the emptiness and desolation in his imagination, it was a quiet and charming world. The emerald-like shining river was embedded in the vast white snow and flowed slowly. ‘At first sight of the Arctic, I fell in love with it.’ Liu Yaqi recalled.

‘Compared with the South Pole, the North pole is not as cold as expected. The average temperature is from minus 3 degrees C to minus 2 degrees C. Most of the time it is foggy and cloudy, the sun is not visible, and the wind is very strong.’ Every day when going out, Liu Yaqi must wear special warm clothing and goggles. Polar day and changes in the magnetic field also affected Liu Yaqi’s sleep to some extent. ‘I exercised for more than one hour every day, such as running and physical training with equipment, so that I could fall asleep as soon as possible.’

‘To me, the Arctic was originally strange, mysterious and even dangerous, but gradually I got to know it, became familiar with it and became close to it.’ Liu Yaqi said.