Abstract: According to their geographical azimuth on the Earth, the Arctic navigation routes can be divided into the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage; Base on their latitude ranges, the Northeast Passage can be divided into the Low Latitude Arctic Passage (Arctic coastal routes), the Mid Latitude Arctic Passage (as an international regular routes), the High Latitude Arctic Passage and the Near North Pole Passage. In the summer of 2012, Xuelong, a Chinese icebreaking research vessel, became the first ship from China that completed the entire Northeast Passage in Chinese voyage history. Xuelong started its Trans-Arctic Voyage from the Bering Strait and arrived in Iceland along the Northeast Passage, and finally returned the Bering Strait through the High Latitude Arctic Passage, completing a round-trip journey across the Arctic Ocean. This paper is base on the experience of this expedition to the Arctic Ocean. In this paper, the opinion about the classifications of the Arctic navigation routes was presented, the status of commercial utility of the Northeast Passage was summaried, the whole course and main issues of Xuelong explorering the Northeast Passage were reviewed, and finally some thinking and recommendations for China to establish its Arctic strategy on Northeast Passage were made.

Key words: Northeast Passage, Arctic navigation routes, XUE LONG, Arctic strategy of China, the Arctic Ocean