There is a world of difference between operating a ship around northern Chinese ports and trying to go the Northern route, when it comes to sea ice.
I suspect that this is the last run across the northern route, being mid-October. I found a webpage that covers sea ice at NASA:
Color-coded map of the daily sea ice concentration in the Northern Hemisphere for the indicated recent date along with the contours of the 15% edge during the years with the least extent of ice (in red) and the greatest extent of ice (in yellow) during the period from November 1978 to the present. The extents in km2 for the current and for the years of minimum and maximum extents are provided below the image. The different shades of gray over land indicate the land elevation with the lightest gray being the highest elevation.
