Dusty tents, rusty oxygen tank, ratty mountain boots are among the "valued garbage" brought back by a group of special mountaineers one month ago from Mount Qomolangma (Everest).

Camps of Chinese climbers carrying the Olympic flame at 8,300 meters of the Mt. Qomolangma are seen in this May, 2008 file photo. [Xinhua]

"The Olympic torch relay on the Mount Qomolangma was environment-friendly. We've left no garbage there," Nyima Cering, one of the torch bearers in the relay and also head of the Tibet Mountaineering Guide School, told reporters from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan media.

All the "garbage" is now being preserved inside the museum for Mt. Qomolangma mountaineering. On Wednesday morning, 31 reporters from 31 Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan media visited the museum.

Nyima Cering contributed the "green" relay to a cooperative team behind the scene of the Olympic torch show. "Back then we had three camps on the mountain. Along the relay course, the team members cleaned every camp thoroughly right after us torch bearers left. They took back everything that could be recycled and disposed others in an environment-friendly way."

"We preserve the garbage inside the museum in memory of the torch relay, but also we want to remind people in this way that even for mountaineering one can leave only footprints," he said.

An official with the Tibet Sports Bureau said, relevant organizations arranged special workers to collect garbage on the mountains at regular time. "Workers put the garbage on the back of yaks and transfer them to the mountain foot for disposal. It even becomes a profession here."

The Tibet Mountaineering Guide School was founded in 1999. It's the only professional mountaineering training school in China. In the recent Olympic torch relay on Mount Qomolangma, nine students from the school reached the top.

At the invitation of the Information Office of the State Council, or the Cabinet, 31 reporters of 18 Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan media began their three-day trip in Tibet on June 3.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2008)