Mount Qomolangma, the world's tallest peak, received 25,000 visitors in the first six months of this year, said tourism authorities in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

They have brought 3.17 million yuan (US$406,000) of tourism revenue, said a spokesman with the local tourism bureau of Xigaze prefecture on the China-Nepal border.

Mount Qomolangma, known in the west as Mount Everest, has become one of the most popular routes for backpackers and mountaineers to Xigaze, he said.

The regional government of Tibet plans to improve a 110-km rough road linking Xigaze's Tingri County at the foot of the mountain to the Qomolangma Base Camp into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails.

The plan is subject to a feasibility study and environment assessment before it is approved by the central government.

The central government as well as Tibet's regional government have stepped up preservation of the vulnerable environment in the nature reserve of the Mount Qomolangma.

But many mountaineers and tourists from China and abroad have suggested the sand and stone road to the mountain, built in 1978, need maintenance and renovation, as driving is dangerous on the road with more than 170 curves.

Tibet had received more than 1.7 million tourist arrivals by the end of July, according to the regional tourism administration.

The administration has been forced to reset its forecast of tourist arrivals for the whole year to 3.5 million, up from 3 million projected at the start of the year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2007)