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A piece of South Pole gneiss, believed to be over 500 million years old, has arrived at the Laohutan Polar Marine Aquarium in Dalian, a port city of northeast China's Liaoning Province. The multi-colored rock is 2.2 meters in height, 1.5 meters in both width and length and weighs seven tons. It was shipped in from Shanghai on Monday, said an official with the aquarium. The rare stone was collected near the Zhongshan Station, one of China's two Antarctic research stations at the South Pole, and brought back by a Chinese expedition team during their 19th mission to the South Pole that ended on March 20. The rock will soon be ready for visitors after preparatory work is finished, said the official. The Laohutan Polar Marine Aquarium, where a great number of polar creatures such polar bears, belugas and elephant seals live, is the only base in China for popularizing knowledge about polar life and is believed to be the largest of its kind in the world. It opened to tourists in April 2002.