On May 18, 2019, a member of the scientific investigation team aboard China's research vessel Kexue checks Discovery, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). [Photo by Zhang Jin'gang/China News Service]

China observed its seventh annual National Science and Technology Workers' Day on May 30, 2023. The day commemorates China's latest scientific and technological achievements, as well as salutes the workers who made them possible. Among those committed to the country's scientific and technological undertakings are a number of scientific researchers who spend half of each year on research vessels without ever giving up, in spite of the hardships they encounter. They have been to the rarely-visited area of the Atlantic, bathed in the cold sea breeze in high latitude regions, experienced seasickness-induced vomiting and exhaustion, and suffered sunburn and skin peeling in long-time on-deck work. Zhang Xin, a professor at the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in East China's Shandong Province, is one such scientific researcher. He has served as the chief scientist in China's deep-sea scientific research expeditions for nine times, leading the research team deep into the ocean and making their due contribution to the development of the country's marine scientific research.