Triumph on top of the world
China has claimed a major phased victory in its latest quest to measure the height of Mt Qomolangma, the world’s tallest mountain located on the China-Nepal border, as all of the measurement team’s eight brave members successfully mounted the world’s highest peak at around 11am on Wednesday. Experts and netizens said that such a great triumph achieved by China with the help of new home-grown technologies have inspired enormous outbursts of pride, at a time when the country has overcome the COVID-19 epidemic through a monthslong tough battle and an important political event, the two sessions, will successfully come to a close at the end of this week.
The team set off to reach the summit of Mt Qomolangma, commonly known in the West as Mount Everest, from a mountain camp at an alti
tude of 8,300 meters at around 2:10 am on early Wednesday morning and after nearly nine hours, the team members in red, the color of the Chinese national flag, managed to ascend to the top of the mountain.
The whole process, especially the breathtaking moment of the team reaching the top, was closely followed by millions of viewers via livestreaming service provided by national broadcaster China Central Television, which was made available thanks to 5G communication technology.
Aside from 5G, many of China’s homegrown new technology applications, including the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, have been adopted and ensure the smooth undertaking of the country’s latest quest to re-measure the height of Mt Qomolangma.
Many said they shared the heart-stirring moments of summiting team members through 5G-powered livestreaming, as if witnessing the magnificence of Mt Qomolangma first hand.
The world’s highest peak has been covered by the 5G network provided by China Mobile. And to ensure smooth communication as well as the high definition livestreaming service for the quest, China’s communication giant Huawei has worked with China Mobile to offer detailed terminal-to-terminal solutions, China Mobile told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Having completed all measuring work, the Chinese height surveying team started to descend from the peak of Mt Qomolangma after two hours at around 1:22 pm.
During their more than two hour long stay on the world’s peak, they were tasked to establish a survey marker to enable the other surveying team at a height of 5,000 to 6, 000 meters to conduct intersection measurement, use radar to measure the depth of snow and using satellite positioning to determine the location of the summit.
The exact data will be released in two to three months, according to Dang Yamin, the project leader of the re-measurement task, told the Global Times.
The re-measurement of Mt Qomolangma’s height comes as measurement techniques have been much improved with enhanced precision, and China, as one of the countries that has sovereignty over Mt Qomolangma, is obligated to offer the world an exact number of the constantly-changing height of the mountain, Dang said.
Chinese researchers will also study first-hand data on the current condition of its glaciers collected during the Wednesday quest. Glacier monitoring is believed to be a key indicator of global warming.
A dream longed for by all
The Wednesday victory has touched Chinese netiznes, as more than 100 million comments were left on Sina Weibo under the CCTV’s livestreaming post to express how delighted they were and how much pride they took in the progress made by our nation.
When viewing the livestream, many netiznes said they naturally recalled the true story adapted blockbuster, The Climbers, starring Wu Jing, a household name in China since his Wolf Warriors series, with the movie depicting the first two attempts to conquer Mt Qomolangma by the Chinese people in 1960s. The Chinese climbers charged at the peak despite poor equipment and risking their lives to prove that we can ascend to the top of the highest mountain, according to the movie.
Dang said that it was beyond heart wrenching to see how the older-generation Chinese trailblazers took on Mt Qomolangma. “I would love to tell them that we don’t have to go through their difficulties any more,” he said.
“We started from the bottom and even when we got there, no one would believe us.” A Beijing resident said.
“Now we’ve made it again, and we nailed it in a way better than anyone else. The whole process was broadcast live, no more doubts.” “Chinese people have not only climbed the world’s highest mountain today, we have also got the COVID-19 epidemic under control with solidarity and wisdom, which could be marked by the successful holding of this year’s two sessions. We are proud of our country,” another Net user wrote.
Netizens wrote that the climb itself, which humans have already completed many times, does not count as such a huge victory to them but the process in which our own technologies like 5G and BDS play such an important role, has really lifted our hearts.