PaPaPeng wrote:
> Everest Olympic torch diary
> After the Olympic torch's tour around the world, and ahead of its
> arrival in Beijing for the Games in August, the BBC's Jonah Fisher
> joins it for the high point of its trip - up Mount Everest.
>
> 8 May 2008,
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7390405.stm
>
> In the eighth of his diary instalments, he watches the final ascent at
> last.
>
> See the torch reach the summit of Everest
>
> After 10 days of gazing at Mount Everest and the clouds blowing around
> its peak, Thursday 8 May was the day we'd all been waiting for.
>
> The stars were still bright in the sky as I stumbled out of bed at six
> in the morning and onto the bus. This was only the second time we'd
> been allowed into base camp since we arrived at Everest.
>
> After an initial commotion while someone looked for the remote
> control, we sat down in a big green tent in front of a huge television
> screen.
>
> Over the next few hours we watched live pictures beamed back from the
> mountain as the Chinese mountaineering team worked its way from their
> final camp at 8300 metres towards the summit.
>
> We took it in turns to marvel first at the strength of the climbers
> and then rather geekily the technical audacity of Chinese television.
> They'd put in place eight relay stations on the mountain and were
> feeding back incredible images of the torchbearers staggering the
> final steps up to the summit.
>
> EVEREST TORCH DIARY
>
> 7 May: The final countdown
> 5 May: Watching the weather
> 1 May: Base camp tour
> 29 April: At the foot of Everest
> 28 April: Whisked through Tibet
> 26 April: Bypassing Lhasa
> 24 April: Information blackout
>
> Packed into our tent the combination of patriotic local journalists
> and Olympic officials were working themselves into a frenzy. Football
> chants were aired as was a big Chinese flag.
>
> At the top of Everest the lanterns were used to light an Olympic
> torch. A mini relay was carried out with two female Tibetan climbers
> the first and last to hold the torch.
>
> Sitting in a packed tent watching a big screen television, it was a
> strange way for a story that I'd been working on for so long to come
> to a climax.
>
> A couple of times as they climbed on screen I had to step outside and
> look at the mountain to remind myself that this drama was really
> taking place just a few kilometres away.
>
> With a successful climb in their back pocket, more Chinese officials
> were willing to speak to us than usual.
>
> Li Zhixin, the head of operations, was of particular interest on the
> question of why we'd been given so little information throughout our
> stay.
>
> "We apologise to the local and international media, we didn't have any
> choice because of the outside interference," he said.
>
> "We met with some very great pressures, I can tell you there are
> people still out there trying to interfere with the event. Our
> climbing torchbearers found their tracks and saw their lights up there
> on our routes."
>
> It was the first we'd heard of anyone even getting close to the
> Everest climb and impossible to verify.
About as exciting as watching ice melt!
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