The China to Build a Road on Mt. Everest for the Olympics?

Everyone knows the Olympics are taking place in China, but that isn't enough for the Chinese. China plans on building a highway that will reach the base camp on Mt. Everest. With this bold statement, environmentalists in china, New Delhi, and around the world are not pleased at all.

The length will be around 110 km road altogether and go to a height of 17,000 feet (5,200 meters), and begins within the week. The estimated length of time to build the road will be finished within 4 months. The Olympic torch is scheduled to be run on this road all the way to the peak of Mt. Everest. The construction of the road is planned to be completed before August of 2008; just in time for the Beijing Olympics Games. The road will begin in the Tingri County of Xigaze and be joined at the foot of Mount Everest to the Base Camp. Form there it will turn into a 'Blacktop Highway' and become fenced by guardrails. Once completed, this road will become a major route for tourists and sightseers due to the crowding of ever increasing numbers. Costing approximately 19.7 million dollars, the road will be built on an existing path. It is claimed that this project will rival that of the previously constructed Beijing-Lhasa Railroad.

The Chinese official Xinhua News Agency announced that: "There are signs saying the planning was carried out in some secrecy and even the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG), had no idea until now." They also suggested that many Chinese authorities could have talk about the project with Nepal but left India "out of the loop". Officials of the capital city of India- New Delhi stated that the road "does not create any new defense concerns for India, though the figurative worth of the Chinese project would be grand.

Despite the concerns and protests from many environmentalists, China will begin its plan on Wednesday starting in Tibet and run all the way to Mt Everest. China also plans to build future hotels in the region of the Himalayas; an already fragile environment.

Neither the concerns of environmentalists or India's protests are not expected to sway the Chinese plan for the road. Since the necessary preparations (geological surveys and investigations in Tibet), have already gone underway so work will being within the week.

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics Games have revealed plans for the longest torch relay in the history of any Olympic events. The plan is a 130 day route, span across 5 continents, scale Mt. Everest summit, and have a length of 137,000 Km.

Environmentalists in India have retorted angrily to the announcement of the road to the base camp. Activists around the world are appalled, not for its purpose, but rather that the road will mean more tourists and more destruction of an area whose ecosystem is already fragile. The groups backup their claim by relating to the decimation of glacier areas where roads were created and pilgrimage locations like Gangotri.

This is a very fragile region and "developing" it will in all reality, destroy it. The small amounts of vegetation are already being destroyed due to the need for fire. Building any road in an area such as that, will utterly change the ecosystem and not in a good way since glaciers are extremely fragile systems. Impacts due to global warming can be seen dramatically and are indirect; building a road would be extremely dangerous not just for the Himalayas but every other areas the road will go through.