China's aircraft carrier Fujian, which has just completed its first sea trial, brings the Chinese Navy into an era of three aircraft carriers and is expected to make great contributions to the development of the Chinese Navy, said a military expert on Wednesday in a phone interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
The Fujian, which is equipped with more new technologies including the electromagnetic aircraft launch system, is China's third aircraft carrier, after the Liaoning and the Shandong.
Named after the eastern Chinese province, the Fujian was completely designed and built by China. It features a full-length, flat flight deck with an advanced catapult-launch system for jets, with a full-load displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes.
Song Xiaojun, a Chinese military expert, said the Fujian is expected to make great contributions to the development of the Chinese Navy.
Song said that with three aircraft carriers, China can still have one in combat trainings or missions when the other two are being repaired or maintained in factory, or in training state. This allows the Chinese Navy to have one aircraft carrier stand by in important waters anytime and anywhere. With the electromagnetic aircraft launch system, Song said, the dispatch rate of aircraft on the Fujian can be higher than that of the other two aircraft carriers, which makes it more suitable to perform some key missions in important sea areas.
Song also believes that with the experience of sea trials and more matured technologies, the Fujian can set a good example for the Chinese Navy in the construction of aircraft carriers of the same type or even larger types.
Aircraft carrier Fujian brings Chinese Navy into three-aircraft-carrier era: military expert
The endangered Tibetan antelopes have started their annual mass migration after the first batch of 47 female Tibetan antelopes passed through the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve in northwest China's Qinghai Province on May 7.
To protect the rare species that are under top-class state protection, the management team of Hoh Xil in the province's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture has set up the Wudaoliang protection station along the migration route. As of noon on Sunday, over 700 Tibetan antelopes had been spotted passing through the station.
The Tibetan antelope, known as the "fairies of the plateau", undertakes a migration from May to July each year. Female antelopes from the Sanjiangyuan region of Qinghai, parts of Qiangtang Terrane in Tibet, and the Arjin Mountains in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, would travel to the Zhuonai Lake in Hoh Xil to give birth before returning to their original habitats with their newborns.
"For Tibetan antelopes, we divide them into six species groups according to their geographical distribution. For example, Qinghai and Xinjiang have one group each. For Xizang (Tibet), there are three species groups in the east, central and west of the Qiangtang Terrane. And there is also one group in southern Qiangtang Terrane, which don't migrate," said Lian Xinming, researcher at the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
With an average altitude of over 4,600 meters, the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is known as a "no-life zone" due to its thin air and low oxygen levels.
However, it is an important habitat for Tibetan antelopes, which can reach top speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour while running. Lian explained the reasons behind the antelopes' remarkable speed.
"I think one of the reasons why they run so fast is that they've got underfur. The warmth of its underfur is one of the characteristics of its ability to adapt to alpine cold and high altitudes. The diameter of its fur can be as thin as about one-seventh of our human hair on the temples. Secondly, its has been found in physiology that the hemoglobin of Tibetan antelope has a blood oxygen capacity that is more than 30 percent higher than that of other plain animals, which proves that the same number of red blood cells has stronger ability to carry oxygen. That should enable the Tibetan antelope to reach 70 or 80 kilometers per hour in a short time," Lian said.
After years of conservation efforts, the Tibetan antelope population in the Hoh Xil region has increased from less than 20,000 in the late 1980s to currently over 70,000.
Tibetan antelopes on migration journey to Hoh Xil Nature Reserve
