Editor’s note: What’s the longest trip you could embark on? For a group of students from Shantou University, their journey to Antarctica, which started on Feb 21 and will finish on March 6, was a once in a lifetime experience. In the next four issues of 21st Century, the student members of the expedition team will share their experience of venturing to the globe’s southern tip, with stories of their pre-departure preparations, life at sea, landing on ice, and working at the Great Wall Research Station with peers from across the country.