More and more people setting sights on highest peak

July,29 2016 BY Master Catherine Jigme 0 COMMENTS

60 years ago, the humans first conquered the world’s highest peak and plant a flag at the top of the Everest. After six decades, climbing Everest seems to be not as hard as most people imagined and more and more people set sights on the highest peak. Making an Everest Base Camp tour also becomes more and more popular among travellers from all over the world.

A pioneering Tibetan mountaineer talked about how he had helped booming numbers of China's nouveau rich to scale the Earth's highest mountain.

Having personally stood at the top of the world in 2003 and 2008, 45-year-old Nyima Tsering now runs a training camp that aims to help non-professional Chinese climbers reach the 8,844-meter-high peak of the mountain otherwise known as Everest.

"In the past, Mount Qomolangma could only be reached by professional teams, but now more and more ordinary Chinese wish to join us," says Nyima Tsering.

For much of the past six decades, scaling the snow-capped mountain on the Sino-Nepalese border has been an athletic feat and a demonstration of national strength due to the great difficulties and dangers it involved.

But for Nyima Tsering and others in the new generation of Chinese summiteers, the mountain is also becoming a longed-for destination and a source of enlightenment for ordinary people.

"The older Chinese mountaineers challenged the peak with a strong sense of a mission to glorify the nation, but to me, climbing the mountain is just part of my life," says Nyima Tsering, who is also head of the Tibetan Mountaineering Team.

Since establishing the camp in 1999, Nyima Tsering has turned 40 local farmers into professional guides, who have led more than 200 expeditions to the summit.

Unlike others who regarded the ascendance to the summit as a victory of the human spirit over nature, Nyima Tsering says he always holds Mount Qomolangma in awe and veneration, and the feeling has not changed despite advances in equipment that have made the climb easier.

"We've prepared electric drills for digging footholds in our latest attempt to reach the peak this year, but I could not convince myself to use them," he said.

This reverence is now shared by his clients, many of whom are successful entrepreneurs. After making their fortunes amid China's transformation into a market economy, some of them arrived at the mountain in search of new life goals.

"The trips to Mount Qomolangma gave them new ideas on life - they became slimmer and thriftier, and they realized they had previously demanded too much from nature," he said.

"To climb the mountain, one only needs a few things, and fame and fortune are not among them."

About the Author - Master Catherine Jigme

With exceptional passion and outstanding leadership, Mrs. Catherine has dedicated herself to Tibet inbound tourism and China tour for 15 years. As one of the handful females who see great potential of Chinese inbound tourism, Catherine has made great contribution to promoting Tibet tourism and enhancing the employment of Tibetans and prosperity of local Tibetan community.

Over the years, she travelled overseas with Tibet Tourism Bureau many times to promote Tibet tourism. Currently, Catherine works as the marketing director of Tibet Vista, an opinion leader behind the whole team of Tibet Vista.

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