"Let's have a sip of tea. I bring you awesome tea," Chen Yuanrong, a mechanician aboard China's Xuelong (Snow Dragon) icebreaker that was on its way to the Antarctica, took out his tea service and made tea for his colleagues.

After experiencing the worst storm since the vessel embarked on its 26th Antarctic expedition on October 11 from Shanghai, the Xuelong on Sunday sailed into the peaceful Coral Sea, northeast of Australia.

Thanks to the peace after an exhausting journey on the stormy sea, those seasick crew members during the storm have somewhat recovered now.

Chen, a tea lover from southeastern China's Fujian Province, taking along with him a whole set of tea things as well as plenty of tea, often invited his colleagues for tea in his room on the vessel since the first day of the cruising.

"Help yourselves. Smell it first and sip a bit," Chen said, drinking tea and chatting with his colleagues.

The mechanician, who was considered as a tea ambassador on the Xuelong, also expounded on the tea culture: "Hold a tea cup to the mouth and you will smell the fragrance; sip a bit and the sweet remains; drink it over and the pleasant taste lasts for long."

Zhu Qinyao, a doctor form the First Hospital Affiliated to Nanchang University in southeastern China's Jiangxi Province and also a tea lover, said, "Drinking tea will brush away all pains and hardship during the journey on the sea."

"A cup of tea plus several friends are simply satisfying," Zhu said.

Chen and Zhu, both members of China's Zhongshan station at the Antarctica this time, will stay in the chilly continent for nearly a year and a half.

However, they still have tea with them as their pleasant accompaniment that will help them keep robust throughout their life in the freezing polar world.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2009)