Tug of hope keeps things moving in frozen sea

HULUDAO, Liaoning - Waves were no longer lashing the quayside. Looking out from the harbor, the Bohai Sea had turned into an ice rink as far as the eye could see.

In the middle of the glistening sheet of frozen sea, Captain Fang Yusen, 59, was at the wheel of his tugboat Jinshuiqiao 6 clearing a passage through the ice to Liutiaogou Harbor at Huludao, in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

"Even when there's no need to guide ships to and from port, we have to go out every day. Otherwise, vessels might become icebound at sea," Fang told me when I boarded his boat.