The Chinese crewed submersible Fendouzhe reached Challenger Deep in November 2020.
Fendouzhe, whose name means “Striver,” is a manned deep-sea vehicle developed by the China Ship Scientific Research Center. On 10 November 2020, it reached the bottom of Challenger Deep with pilot Zhang Wei and scientists Zhao Yang and Wang Zhiqiang aboard. Reports gave the dive depth as about 10,909 m.
The descent formed part of a larger testing programme in the Mariana Trench. Between 10 October and 28 November 2020, Fendouzhe made 13 dives, eight of them deeper than 10,000 m. Its pressure hull was designed to carry three people alongside scientific and technical equipment, making the mission both an engineering demonstration and an oceanographic expedition.
The alternatives belong to other deep-sea programmes. Jiaolong is another Chinese crewed submersible but is not the vehicle associated with this Challenger Deep descent. Haidou-1 and Shenhai Yongshi are uncrewed or differently purposed deep-sea vehicles, so they are not interchangeable with Fendouzhe.