A Chinese research vessel and ice-breaker is due to set sail this week for the Arctic, a region much coveted by Beijing for its wealth of scientific data and natural resources.
The shrinking of the frozen sheets blanketing the Arctic - thanks to global warming - are expected, at least in summer, to allow navigation of the area and access to its as-yet untapped supplies of oil and natural gas.
Indeed, studies show the Arctic could be completely ice-free in summer by 2050 or earlier, making it an object of desire, and dispute, for the countries which border it - Russia, Norway, the US, Canada and Denmark.
China, which has no territorial claim whatsoever, "is indeed at a very disadvantageous position in this brewing international competition surrounding the Arctic passage and resources", said Ren Xianfang, of IHS Global Insight.
Passage through the Arctic would shorten the route from Shanghai to Hamburg by 6,400 kilometres and limit exploding insurance costs sparked by the pirates infesting the waters of the Gulf of Aden, according to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
But there are possible pitfalls for a future Chinese waterway, such as the difficulty of navigating between icebergs and the competing claims for right-of-way of the bordering countries.
The advantages of opening up the Arctic are far more than geographical.
Both its hard-to-reach deep waters and those nearer the shore are believed to contain up to 13 per cent of the world's untapped oil reserves and up to 30 per cent of its undiscovered natural gas deposits, according to the US Geological Survey.
"There are indisputably high stakes for China in the Arctic, considering that the country's economy is connecting increasingly closely with North America and Europe," said Dr Ren, the Global Insight researcher.
"A shorter shipping route to these two destinations will certainly cut logistics expenses, increase the competitiveness of China's manufactured products and provide a boon to China's external sector."
Dr Ren said China's appetite for overseas resources would only increase in the future as its own reserves dwindle.
"China, as a rising global power, is having a much larger say in international affairs now, and it will probably be able to leverage that influence to weigh itself in the shaping of the future Arctic global governance mechanism," she added.
China, already an ad-hoc observer of the Council of the Arctic States, is seeking permanent observer status.