First Tibetan Weather Observer Visits the South Pole
Wang Yuanhong

Benbaa Cering with lovely penguines

Thousands of scientists in the world have visited the South Pole for scientific survey, but one of the most unique is Benba Cering from Tibet and the first Tibetan to do the work. Sent by the Chinese Academy of Meteorology and its Tibetan Branch, he stayed at the South Pole for 15 months.
Benba, now 28, graduated from the Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 1996, and was assigned to remote sensing work in the Tibet Academy of Meteorology. Three years later, he was invited to receive training in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, for the South Pole assignment.
He left Lhasa for Shanghai on October 25. There, he joined other team members to leave for the South Pole on November 1. With bouquets in his hands, the surrounding hurrahs intoxicated the young scientist. As the Snow Dragon ship lifted anchor, the Tibetan began to see the dawn in his dream to visit the South Pole.

One more sign board inscribed with Lhasa was added to the South Pole Zhongshan Station

The trip extends 24,700 km. Ships, large or small, were visible all along the way. Gradually, the Snow Dragon ship became a tree leaf drifting on the vast expense of ocean. Benba felt he was at one with the heaven and the earth.
On December 6, his group reached their destination-South Pole Zhongshan Station.
Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
In the memorial hall set up to mark Dr. Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) who led the Revolution of 1911 to topple the last feudal dynasty of Qing in China, there is a silk tangka painting of the Potala Palace, which is a gift from Benba.
"When I first set foot on the South Pole,"he said, "I wanted to shout with joy!"
Seeing my inquiring look, he explained: "You see" I wished to do that because I was fed up with the surging ocean!
"I was born and brought up in Tibet, so I have seen many snow-covered mountains. Well, the mountains [in Antarctica] are just gorgeous! So much snow! And so many penguins and sea leopards! It is really fun to have their company when life became somewhat arid. In that part of the world, 97 percent of the land is under ice and snow 2,450 meters deep. It can supply fresh water to the mankind for 7,500 years.?
According to Benba, when he first reached the South Pole, he experienced 24 hours of daylight.
When it was time to sleep, he didn't feel like to go to bed, and this feeling lasted many days.

BThe Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall at the South Pole has collected a silk tangka painting of the Potala Palace.

He was charged with observing the changing weather patterns and work out data. He had to do this four times a day: at 8, 11, 14 and 17 hours Beijing time. His data covered clouds, visibility, wind, atmospheric temperature, radiation and sunlight. By the end of a month, this data would be sent to weather stations the world over.
In order to do a good job, Benba studied data collected by his predecessors over the years. During the 15 months at the South Pole, he worked his way through some five kg of papers! This made him a model worker.
"After the polar day, we had the polar night from late May to late July,?Benba said.
"Whipping wind, snowstorms and loneliness were the chief enemies. We were charged with observing wind with a super velocity of 38 or 46 meters per second.
"When there was a snowstorm, we had to walk in incredible cold. We were armed with a walkie-talkie set. Whenever there was a hidden danger, we would yell for help. Once, I made a shortcut back to my dorm. But I was exhausted. I fell onto the ground, and had to crawl 200 meters to the dorm.
"during the snowstorm, the visibility was about 0.5 meters. Our dorm is 50 meters from the dining hall. But we had to fight more than 10 minutes to cover that distance. As the dorm is about 300 meters from the observation spot, it is understandable how much trouble we were confronted in doing out work.?
Talking about his future plans, Benba said he would compile the data the collected into something like a book as a contribution to the world weather work.