Olympic torch relayed on Mt. Qomolangma for first time
8/5/2008 17:13
The Olympic torch was relayed by Chinese climbers for about six minutes on
the top of Mount Qomolangma this morning.
The lantern carrying the Olympic
flame for the Beijing Games was carried to the top of the mountain at 9:00 a.m.
Beijing time. Norbu Zhamdu lit the torch with a specially designed lighter at
9:11 and the unprecedented relay concluded at 9:17.
The relay on Mt.
Qomolangma started with Gyigyi as the first bearer and Wang Yongfeng as the
second.
Wang, member of the backup team, handed the torch to Nyima Cering,
captain of the 12-member Attack Team, who yelled "One World, One Dream" - the
Beijing Olympic slogan, before passing the flame to Huang Chungui.
The fifth
and last torchbearer, Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch
while other 18 team members unfurled Chinese, Olympic and Beijing Olympic
flags.
Wangmo's younger brother Daintar, working for China Central Television
which live broadcasted the flame's Qomolangma journey, recorded history with a
handycam.
Clustered together at the summit, all 12 members of the Attack Team
and seven backup climbers cheered "We made it." One climber shouted "Long Live
Beijing" and another "Beijing welcomes you."
Despite strong winds and
freezing temperatures at the summit, the special torch stayed alight and bright
with the help of Chinese rocket scientists.
In January 2006, the China
Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, an institute that specializes in
designing burning systems for rockets, was entrusted with the task of designing
the combustion system for Beijing's Olympic torch.
Liu Xingzhou, the chief
engineer for the designing project, said the same principle was adopted to keep
the torch flame flaring on Mt. Qomolangma as much as to keep rocket motors
flaring in thin air.
Nineteen climbers who stayed overnight at the
8,300-meter Attack Camp were waken up at around 1:00 a.m.. After a brief ritual
of paying respect to the world's highest mountain, the first team of climbers
started off at 1:30 and the second team followed at 3:30.
The Beijing Olympic
torch relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned, traveling 137,000
kilometers across five continents in 130 days. The torch returned to the Chinese
mainland at the beginning of May and is to tour boomtown Shenzhen in south
China's Guangdong province late in the day.
Xinhua
|
