Hong Kong explorer celebrates life's new adventure

HONG KONG — With straight bangs, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and a soft voice, Rebecca Lee looks more like a teacher than an explorer.

The 80-year-old has many identities: photographer, polar researcher, graphic designer, and most importantly, Hong Kong's first female explorer to have set foot on Earth's three extremes — the North Pole, the South Pole and Mount Qomolangma.

Now, having hung up her explorer boots, Lee is ready for the next expedition, one that would last a lifetime: environmental protection and education.

From a young age, Lee was intrigued by adventures. Books such as Robinson Crusoe and Around the World in Eighty Days were her favorites. By 1985, when China established its first scientific research station in Antarctica, she had visited over 100 cities worldwide.

Back then, as a graphic designer, Lee was part of the team planning for an exhibition on China's Antarctic expedition in Hong Kong. Intrigued by the unique continent, she applied to become a photographer to film China's second Antarctic expedition that year.

The first time she set foot on Antarctica, she was stunned.

"The research station was red — bright, glorious Chinese red — in a vast blanket of white. Snow and ice were everywhere," she recalls.

"I felt as excited as a bride arriving at a distant new home," she recalls. "I vowed in my heart that I would never let this land down."

Over the ensuing decades, she returned to the continent seven times, visited the Arctic 10 times and left her footprints in areas of the Mount Qomolangma four times.

During the trips, she developed an intimacy with nature and felt how climate change is causing damage to it.

"You can even swim in the Arctic during the summer," she says.

Her expeditions have led her to reflect on the impact of human activities on nature. In order to enhance public awareness of environmental issues, she organized lectures and initiated the establishment of the Polar Museum Foundation, hoping to inspire young people to appreciate nature and contribute to environmental protection.

In 2013, thanks to Lee's efforts, the Museum of Climate Change was established. The city's first-ever museum dedicated to climate change displayed a collection of artifacts from Lee's expeditions, including thousands of pictures and hundreds of hours of video footage.

"I'm in the final phase of my life. It's time to give all I have to my students and the public. I'm in a great position to do so, too — I have passion; I have connections with scientists; and the Chinese government supports my efforts in popularizing Polar sciences. I'm also a designer by profession, good at packaging science in art," she says.

If Lee's life is about connecting the dots, the arrival of China's first domestically made polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 to Hong Kong was another important mark.

In April, the vessel made a stop in Hong Kong during its homebound voyage after China's 40th Antarctic expedition.

Boarding the ship, Lee felt a familiar sense of pride. To her, Xuelong was like an old friend. She first saw Xuelong in 1996, when the vessel made a stop in Hong Kong on its way to Antarctica. She boarded the icebreaker in 1999, when she spent two months onboard as a student alongside many scientists. In 2004, when Xuelong made a stop in Hong Kong during China's 21st Antarctic expedition, she organized a series of welcoming events for the old friend.

This year, she has been more of an educator. Together with members of the country's 40th Antarctic scientific expedition team, she shared polar research and exploration experiences with students in Hong Kong.

For Lee, the adventure of environmental protection and education never ends. While there will be obstacles in the journey, nature will be her guide.

"There's so much environmental protection work to be done. We need to learn from nature and see how nature needs us to help it," she says.

Xinhua