According to the Tibet Information Center, domestic and foreign media reporters with invitations arrived on the afternoon of April 28 at the Rongbuk Base Camp News Center to report on the Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest) torch relay.

Headquarters of Mt. Qomolangma media center

The press base, situated at 5,045 meters above sea level, is no doubt the highest-altitude media center in the world. In the next few days, ten domestic media sources, including the China Tibet Information Center, the People's Daily and the China News Service, as well as seven foreign media sources, including Reuters and the BBC, will report on this grand event.

1st press conference at Mt. Qomolangmamedia center

Jiang Xiaoyu, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG), said that during the opening ceremony held in Beijing on March 31 to welcome the arrival of the Olympic torch into China and to mark the beginning of the torch relay, a separate flame had been kept in a lantern with the flame for the torch relay on the Himalayan peak.

Chinese and foreign reporters

Officials confirmed on April 27 that this lantern safely arrived at the Qomolangma base camp located 5,200 meters above sea level and that it was escorted by the BOCOG's flame security team.

The Beijing Olympic torch relay's Pyongyang leg successfully concluded on the afternoon of April 28. It has arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, capital of Vietnam, on April 29.

(China.org.cn April 29, 2008)