China's Everest Olympic torch run is grand -- but secretive
Beijing—Chinese mountaineers made final preparations Wednesday to take the Olympic torch up Mount Everest in a grand but contentious feat for the Beijing Olympics that is being accorded an unusual mixture of fanfare and secrecy.
State-run China Central Television began the first of what are billed as elaborate and technically difficult live broadcasts from Everest's base camp for the torch's journey up the world's tallest peak. Mountaineers were completing the setup of a staging point at 8,300 meters (27,390 feet) for the final assault on the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) summit, CCTV reported.
Yet there was no word on the location of the torch, which mountaineers on the 31-member climbing team would go to the summit, their whereabouts and when they would scale the peak, though that could come as early as Thursday.
The Web site of Beijing Daily likened the lack of information to a "mysterious veil that has surrounded base camp."
Still billed as a spectacular event in the buildup to the August games, the Everest climb is being given mixed treatment. With the torch relay dogged by protests worldwide and Beijing's oft-criticized rule in Tibet drawing heated scrutiny after widespread anti-Chinese protests this spring, organizers have placed a premium on security.
The Everest torch, specially designed to burn in oxygen-thin Himalayan air, is a sister flame to the one that made its way around the world and Wednesday reached Hong Kong, returning to Chinese territory after a month abroad. Organizers did not publicize the Everest flame's travel to base camp over the past month, apparently to avoid protests.
