Tibet Autonomous Region, southwest China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Aerial shots of floating airship by Lake Namtso
2. Various of scientist working
3. Various of Lake Namtso
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhang Taihua, executive captain, floating airship program: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (starting with shot 3/ending with shots 5-6):
"The height of 7,000 meters above the sea level is what the airship had never been before. It marks the world record for flying at such a high altitude for airships of the same class."
5. Various of floating airship
6. Various of research equipment
7. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yao Tandong, chief scientist, China's second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition (ending with shots 8-9):
"The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is China's ecological security barrier. Our research focuses on water, ecology and human activities in the region, trying to reveal the mechanism of environmental changes, and to make scientific contribution to the development and construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the perspective of earth system science."
8. Research equipment
9. Various of floating airship
10. Computer screen monitoring floating airship
11. Various of floating airship
12. Various of researchers working on floating airship
13. Local landscape
14. Various of researchers working
15. Aerial shots of floating airship
16. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Cai Rong, party committee secretary, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ending with shots 17-18):
"This is the sixth time for us to arrive here for the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition. We have been working hard to improve our technology, trying to support the research mission with self-developed technologies."
17. Fast motion of floating airship
18. Various of local landscape
19. Various of researchers working
20. Various of local landscape

Chinese researchers are trying to use a huge floating airship to conduct water vapor observation at an altitude of 7,000 meters in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The observation, as part of China's second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition, will mark the first time that a floating airship flying at such high altitudes to measure water vapor if it is successfully conducted later this month.

The huge floating airship, named "Jimu No.1," will rise about 4,730 meters above the sea level, arriving at an altitude of 7,000 meters by the lake of Namtso in central Tibet.

It was sent to an altitude of over 6,200 meters on the plateau in this January.

"The height of 7,000 meters above the sea level is what the airship had never been before. It marks the world record for flying at such a high altitude for airships of the same class," said Zhang Taihua, executive captain of the airship developed by the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Jimu No.1 has a volume of 2,300 cubic meters and contains 1,400 kilograms of helium. Its surface is made of composite fabric, and it can withstand low temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius.

Its observation will help researchers understand the source of the water supply and water transmission route on the plateau.

"The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is China's ecological security barrier. Our research focuses on water, ecology and human activities in the region, trying to reveal the mechanism of environmental changes, and to make scientific contribution to the development and construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the perspective of earth system science," said Yao Tandong, chief scientist of China's second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition.

To support the research mission on the plateau, the Aerospace Information Research Institute has developed three floating airships which are expected to fly at an altitude of over 9,000 meters in the future.

"This is the sixth time for us to arrive here for the second Qinghai-Tibet scientific expedition. We have been working hard to improve our technology, trying to support the research mission with self-developed technologies," said Cai Rong, secretary of the Communist Party of China committee of the institute.