Chinese Arctic Expedition Ship Anchors at Nome in Alaska ����China's Arctic expedition ship, "Snow Dragon", which is carrying 124 scientists and journalists, dropped anchor a mile off Nome, Alaska at 8:20 am on July 12 (Beijing time). ����The ship has traveled over 3,560 nautical miles in more than 230 hours since it left Shanghai at the beginning of the month. It will take the ship another 15 hours to enter the Arctic Circle, according to Yuan Shaohong, the captain. ����The ship has remained at Nome to replenish supplies before entering the Arctic Ocean and to give the crews 24 hours to test their research equipment and make other preparations. ����Ruey-Gang Chang, a professor from a Taiwan university has been on board. Engineers of Finland had maintained the meteorological auto visualizer carried on the ship. ����The team will weigh anchor for the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait. ����According to original plan, the team will carry out sea-ice-air joint surveys on 16 spots, the first one will be on the 73 degree of northern latitude. The surveys will be of great significance for making study on effects of the Arctic on global shift. ����Copters on the ship will also make trial flights after the ship going on sail. ����Ice situation report shows that the ice zone of the Arctic is more south than anticipated, which will bring more difficulties for the scheduled research. The team will keep close watch on the change of ice situation and work out a supplementary plan as soon as possible. HomeNews 1999-07-13 Page5 Full Story in Chinese