China has set up a laboratory for polar survey and mapping in the northeastern Heilongjiang Province to enhance its polar research capacity.

The lab, jointly established by Wuhan University in central China's Hubei Province and the Heilongjiang Provincial Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, is expected to enhance China's polar research capacity by providing precision survey and mapping services and upgrading the remote sensing information technology.

The new establishment is also an important means of academic cooperation between its two sponsors in such fields as geodynamics, remote sensing and geoscience information, said a source with the provincial bureau.

The bureau is a leading survey and mapping base in China. Four of its researchers have joined in the country's scientific expeditions to the South Pole since 2002. The bureau set up an engineering center for polar survey and mapping in Jan. 2004.

The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping has overseen the establishment of the new laboratory, which is designed to be one of its key national research bodies.

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2005)