ABOARD XIANGYANGHONG - China's manned deep-sea submersible, the Jiaolong, reached the depth of 6,000 meters of the Mariana Trench at 12 pm local time (0400GMT) Friday.

The dive, which began at 9 am, is the first of a series of six scheduled ones to attempt the country's deepest-ever 7,000-meter manned dive.