In the human exploration of the polar regions, a small town called New Ålesund plays an important role. Located at 79 degrees north latitude and in the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway, New Ålesund is the northernmost human settlement on Earth and is known as the "Holy Land of Scientific Research" by polar scientists.
The Arctic Yellow River Station is the northernmost stronghold of China's polar expeditions. Built in 2004, the Yellow River Station in the Arctic is the first scientific research station established in the Arctic by China. Every year, the polar night begins in late October and lasts for more than 120 days.
This winter, in the long polar night when the sun never rises, Li Bin, the director of the wintering station and an associate researcher at the China Polar Research Center, became the only resident of the Yellow River Station.
In normal times, Li Bin is responsible for the normal operation of twenty or thirty pieces of equipment in New Alesund, Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, and Kelge, Iceland.
The aurora usually erupts in the middle of the night, and when the strong aurora erupts, Li Bin will also pick up a camera and a tripod to shoot the aurora in the snow dozens of centimeters thick.
In addition to observing the aurora and heavy snow, he also had to brave the severe cold of minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius, hike hundreds of meters, and check the antenna and aurora observation equipment at the Yellow River Station.
In Svalbard, where New Ålesund is located, polar bears injure people almost every year, so scientific staff must carry guns when they go out to work in the town.
Li Bin said that although the work is hard, it is a very happy thing to do the work he loves.
Reporter: Ma Zhiyi, Zhang Yuliang, Liu Yuxuan.
Editor: Wei Ying.
Produced by Xinhua News Agency.