CHINA - New road to Everest

TTGasia.com, Jun 29 - Jul 5, 2007

The Chinese government has announced plans to build a paved road from the foot of Mt Everest to Base Camp at 5,200m above sea level on the Tibetan side of the mountain. With construction starting this week, local authorities are predicting the 108km road will be completed as early as November. According to the authorities, the new road would follow the route of an existing dirt path up the mountain. The aim of paving the road, they said, was to smooth the path for the Olympic Torch, which is expected to reach the 8,849m summit of Mt Everest in May 2008 as part of the longest, and arguably most ambitious torch relays in Olympic history – covering 137,000km across five continents in 130 days.

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