China celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding on October 1, 2009.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese festival, fell on the 3rd of October in 2009. With deep love for the motherland and a sense of joy for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, and in the morning dew, China's deep-sea manned submersible sea trial team members stood ready in the C2 sea area near a 1,000-metre depth contour in the South China Sea for the first 1,000-metre dive of the Hexie submersible.

Excitement surged within each and every one of the team members. According to international conventions, depths below 1,000 metres are called the "deep sea", while those below 5,000 metres called "the abyss". A dive deeper than 1,000 metres is a deep dive in a real sense. The success of this sea trial would secure China a seat in the international deep-sea club.

With typhoon Ketsana dying away, the vast South China Sea was calm with ripples sweeping across the surface, gently welcoming those who would explore the sea. Eight tests were scheduled for the day: an unpowered dive and floating, a 1,000-metre submersible attitude adjustment, a navigation function verification test, bathymetrie swath survey sonar, 6,971 emergency communications, memento laying and high-speed underwater acoustic communications. The tests were to be performed by Professor Yu, Ye Cong and Yang Bo, the original team who accomplished the 300-metre dive.

At 7:00 in the morning, the on-site headquarters issued the "steady" order and held a brief departure ceremony on the rear deck. The three pilots wore blue one-piece uniforms with the Five-star Red Flag printed on the chest, valiant and heroic in bearing.

Liu Feng, the on-scene Chief Commander, waved his hand and issued the order: "The 1,000-metre manned submersible test starts now. Oceanauts for the test dive please enter the cabin!"

"Yes!" The oceanauts for the test dive walked aboard the submersible platform and entered the cabin one by one. Each of them turned back and waved to their colleagues who bid them farewell, showing their firm determination to accomplish the task.

In the distant waves, Ships No. 72, No. 76 and No. 77 of the China Marine Surveillance in charge of guard were deployed within a radius of five nautical miles around the Xiangyanghong 09 ship, with their radars turned on, searching the sea surface and guarding the Xiangyanghong 09 mothership and the underwater Hexie submersible.

Good news soon came in quick succession, through the underwater acoustic communication system: "Xiang 9, Hexie reports: we've reached 200 metres deep...500 metres...600 metres...800 metres...900 metres..." Each report evoked bursts of applause in the mothership.

At 9:17, Ye Cong, the Chief Pilot, reported again in his loud voice, "We reached 1,109 metres. We are in sound physical condition and the submersible operates well!"

"Great! We succeeded!" Excitement prevailed in every comer of the mothership, sweeping across the on-site headquarters, the submersible control room, the preparation room, the on-duty decks, and even the navigation bridge, laboratory and kitchen. Prolonged cheers and applause filled the whole ship. The moment the grey-haired chief Xu Qinan walked into the on-site headquarters, all the staff stood up and saluted the leading designer and producer of the 7,000-metre manned submersible with enthusiastic applause. Liu Xincheng, Liu Feng and others could not help moving forward to hug Mr. Xu tightly.

At 11:20, the submersible was successfully recovered onto the deck and the oceanauts got out of the cabin, one by one, displaying the Five-star Red Flag together. Rao Aijie and Guo Rui, journalists traveling with the ship, along with other shutterbugs raised their cameras and mobile phones to capture the precious moment. When the oceanauts walked down the platform, the sea trial crew flocked to the back deck, cheering and welcoming the returned warriors. Everyone shouted excitedly, "Salute to the oceanauts!" and "Long live the motherland!"

The test pilot, Ye Cong, reported to the commander: "We have completed the scheduled test programme and returned safe and sound!"

Liu Feng, the Chief Commander, said: "Congratulations and thank you! Now I declare: China's manned submersible successfully dived to a depth of 1,109 metres at 9:17 on 3rd October 2009, at 17° 27'N and 110° 25'E in the South China Sea!"

Applause and cheers burst out again. Sun Qing, the Director of Marine Affairs Office of the MOST presented a bouquet to the oceanauts. Each of the three oceanauts opened a bottle of champagne, swaying and splashing into the crowd, bringing the joyous atmosphere to a climax...

This is a gift from the sons and daughters of the Divine Land on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. This marks China's ascension to the deep-sea club as the fifth member, after the United States, Russia, Japan and France. We can proudly declare that the Chinese have come to the deep sea!

(selected from Jiaolong's Sea Explorations by Xu Chen, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2019)