Xiamen (CNS) – A guide to the Arctic Voyage (through the Northeast Passage) in Chinese is expected to be finished in June, and it will be the first one in the world in Chinese, Xiamen-based Jimei University said Sunday.

The guide, compiled jointly by the East China Sea navigation support center, marine navigation research center, and polar research institute at Jimei University, will make China the second country following Russia to issue an Arctic Voyage guide.

Huang Pengfei, deputy director at the marine navigation research center, said ship routes across the North Pole would save 35 to 40 percent of the traditional route from China to Europe, which went through Malacca, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean.

Huang said the guide was started after Chinese cargo ship Yongsheng finished its trip by way of the Northeast Passage from China's Taicang to the Netherlands' Rotterdam last year.

Yongsheng's voyage was about 2,800 nautical miles shorter than the traditional route, Huang added.

Zheng Shanglong, a captain at the research center, said the guide consists of four parts: local regulations and international conventions, meteorological conditions and navigation environment, safe routes, and operation in ice zones.

Huang also said the guide will be published on paper with a CD, in addition to the electronic version.