On February 5th, the Qingdao National Deep Sea Base bearing the significant responsibility to conduct deep sea scientific investigation embraced the historic moment when “Hailong No. 2” unmanned cable submersible and “Qianlong No. 1” unmanned and uncabled submersible resided in Qingdao at the same time following the “Jiaolong” manned submersible. “Jiaolong”, “Hailong No. 2” and “Qianlong No. 1” are three typical deep sea carriers independently designed and assembled by China with proprietary intellectual property rights and the most widely applicable in deep sea exploration and prospecting. “Three Dragons” gathering in Qingdao provides enormous technical support for scientific investigation launched by the Qingdao National Deep Sea Base.

    According to the introduction by Yu Hongjun, the director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center, the “Three Dragons” is the landmark and milestone of Chinese deep-sea technological development and represents the overall level of Chinese deep sea technical equipment development. All the “Three Dragons” have dived into the deep sea several times and created many deep sea scientific investigation miracles. These deep sea submersibles are the core technical equipment for future deep sea exploration. In addition, they will become important means for China to conduct deep sea resource prospection and frontier science research, improve dramatically the efficiency and accuracy of China in resource prospecting in international waters, help the Chinese deep sea scientific research embrace the international leading edge, and enhance the Chinese discourse power in international waters.

    The Qingdao National Deep Sea Base is a country-oriented national multi-functional and open deep sea scientific investigation public service platform. The “Three Dragons” gathering here will further consolidate the position of Qingdao as a city of marine science and technology.

    Yu Hongjun said, “Qingdao will take the construction of the home port of deep sea scientific investigation as its own duty, try its best to do well the maintenance and application of deep sea technical equipment including the “Three Dragons”, enhance the technical support capability for deep sea activities and build up an occupational support and guarantee team and construct itself into a large scale deep sea equipment application sharing platform.” （Picture: Three submersibles residing in National Deep Sea Base, “Qianlong No. 1”, “Hailong No.2” and “Jiaolong” from the front to the back. Taken by Wang Lei)