Antarctic gateway cities

[1] From west to east, they are Punta Arenas, Chile; Ushuaia, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Hobart, Australia; and Christchurch, New Zealand.

As Antarctica is a low-resource environment with no major transportation infrastructure of its own, gateway cities are a necessary part of all Antarctic activities.

Each of the gateway cities accommodate both planes and ships traveling to Antarctica, and generally service the areas of the continent closest to them.

In the 1820s when mainland Antarctica was first discovered, the current gateway cities didn't have the infrastructure to support expeditions so ships departed from more northerly ports such as Valparaíso, Chile and Sydney, Australia.

For instance, Shanghai has a growing role through the Polar Research Institute of China and could potentially become recognized as a gateway city in the future.

[17] In recent years the cities have seen efforts by municipal officials to promote stronger relationships with the continent, such as Antarctic festivals, education programs for K-12 students, museum exhibits, and public outreach campaigns.

[23][24] Christchurch offers almost no commercial travel to Antarctica, but it is a logistics center for the national Antarctic programs of New Zealand, the United States, Italy, and South Korea.