Olympic Flame Taken Atop Everest
Posted on: Thursday, 8 May 2008, 09:00 CDT
China announced a climbing team, traversing the Tibetan Himalayan route, on Thursday took the Beijing Olympic flame to the summit of Mount Everest.
The Chinese climbers reached the summit at 9:18 a.m. Thursday, Xinhua reported from the base camp of of the climbing crew. It said the final assault to the summit was led by 19 climbers who set out at 3 a.m. from an altitude of 27,000 feet. The climbers included Tibetans.
The event was televised live to mark the Olympic torch's highly publicized part of its world tour which also saw bitter protests in many world capitals against China's human rights record and its crackdown in Tibet. Tight security surrounded the Everest event to prevent pro-Tibetan protests.
Xinhua said climber Cering Wangmo hoisted the flame atop the 29,015-foot tall Mount Everest. The Everest flame was to be reunited with the main Olympic flame later in the relay, the report said.
The torches, the special flame fuel and the lantern to prevent it from being extinguished were developed by Chinese scientists.
Source: United Press International
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds