Liang Qun and Li Weiwen, a married couple who teach at the Shenzhen University, will leave the city soon to face an extreme challenge. They plan to conquer the South Pole together with five other members of China's amateur mountaineering expedition team.

Their expedition, which is part of the China Mountaineering Association's "7+2" plan to send amateurs to the highest points of the seven continents and South and North poles, will test their will power and physical strength.

"We have been preparing for the challenge with regular physical training and starting collecting information about the Antarctic months ago," said Liang.

The team will fly from Beijing on Dec. 1 and arrive at a camp in the Antarctica in the middle of December. They plan to cover the continent in 12 days and scale Mount Vinson, the 4,897-meter peak of Antarctica, over five days from Jan. 3 to 7, 2006, if weather permits.

This 45-day expedition will see them combating extremely low temperatures and unpredictable storms.

Prior to the expedition, the couple had climbed Mt. Elbrus in Europe and Kilimanjaro in Africa. Liang, the wife, also reached the summit of the world's highest peak, Mount Qomolangma, in 2003.

Li did not complete the climb up Qomolangma as he fell ill upon reaching 8,000 meters.

Three members of the team — Wang Yongfeng, Ci Luo and Liu Jian — have successfully climbed the peaks of six continents and the North Pole. If they finish their expedition in January, they will be among the few people in the world to have completed the "7+2" plan.

(Shenzhen Daily November 14, 2005)