TIANJIN, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- One of the capsules used to rescue the 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010 became a permanent exhibit on Friday in Chile's National Pavilion in China, located in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.
The metallic "Phoenix" containers, created by the Chilean Navy in cooperation with US space agency NASA, carried the miners back to safety from 700 meters underground, where they had been trapped for 69 days following a mine collapse in 2010.
The capsule set up today in Tianjin is one of the three "Phoenix" capsules, and the only one on permanent display outside the South American country, Chilean Ambassador to China, Luis Schmit, told Xinhua at the inauguration ceremony.
He explained that the capsule will stay in China definitively, as a gift to the Chinese people and evidence of their great friendship, as well as the growing trade and cooperation between the two nations.
The capsule, painted in the white, blue and red colors of the Chilean flag, is 3.9 meters tall, 54 centimeters wide and weighs about 460 kilograms. It has retractable wheels on the top and the bottom to ease movement, a safety harness to hold passengers, communication equipment and oxygen supply for the roughly 20-minute trip.
"The 'Phoenix' rescue capsules represent the courage, the strength and the respect for life of the Chilean people, who have always attached affection to China," the diplomat said.
Three capsules were built for the rescue operation. While the first one was used in tests and the "Phoenix 2" lifted the miners to safety, the third one was kept in reserves, and later given to the Chilean Embassy in China by the Chilean government in 2013.
A Chinese Navy fleet visited Chile, Brazil and Argentina in late 2013 and brought the capsule to China. The Chilean Embassy decided to donate the rescue cabin to its National Pavilion, which has been moved to the China-Chile demonstrative agriculture farm in Jixian county, Tianjin, from its original site at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Curiously, the third "Phoenix" was numbered 5 instead of 3. "I think because the miners in Chile believe that 5 is a lucky number," suggested Schmit.
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