Chinese climbers carrying the Olympic flame reached the summit of Mount Everest today, state television showed, in an historic moment for China exactly three months ahead of the Beijing Games.
Tibetan female climber Cering Wangmo reached the top of the world’s highest mountain bearing a special extreme-altitude torch, triggering celebrations in China but further criticism from Tibetan activists.
“Beijing welcomes you!” joyous team members said as they stood at the 8,848-metre summit, with the event broadcast on national television. Others shouted: “We are on top of the world!”, and “One World, One Dream!”, the official slogan of the Beijing Olympics.
The team halted just four metres below the summit to light the torch, with five climbers then relaying it the final metres to the top, where others had already gathered to unfurl small banners showing the Olympic rings.
The team had set out six hours earlier for a final push to the peak in an event that had been delayed for about two weeks due to adverse weather.
Taking the torch to Mount Everest was the most ambitious part of what has become the longest and most controversial Olympic torch relay in history.
Because of the unrest, China deployed huge security teams for the flame’s ascent, while climbing expeditions from both Everest’s Tibetan and Nepali sides were suspended to prevent any disturbances marring the summit attempt.
China has said it hopes the Everest leg of the relay will promote unity between Tibetans and the majority Han population of China.
But exiled Tibetan leaders and activist groups have said taking the torch through Tibet is a provocation that contradicts China’s own admonition, voiced amid the protestsduring the overseas relay, not to politicise the Games.
“By taking the torch up the Tibetan side of Everest during the domestic Chinese leg of the torch relay, China is clearly attempting to underscore its baseless claims to sovereignty over Tibet,” said Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the London-based Free Tibet Campaign. “This is clear politicisation of the Games by the host country itself.”
The special Everest torch is different from the one that arrived on the Chinese mainland at the weekend after its month-long trip across five continents.
Peak opens for summiteers on Sunday
Mount Everest will re-open for mountaineering expeditions from the south face from Sunday. The tallest peak in the world was closed for climbing following an April 2 Cabinet decision. The route to Mt Everest from Base Camp II upwards from Nepal’s side was closed on Chinese government’s request for smooth journey of Olympic torch to the Everest top. At least 41 expeditions are waiting at Base Camp II. Of them, 29 are on the way to scale Mt Everest while 12 are on the way to scale Mt Lhotse and Mt Choyu, said an official of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation.
No comments:
Post a Comment