China will establish a monument to mark its endeavor to measure Mt. Qomolangma, scheduled in May this year.
The 2.4-meter-tall granite monument, in the shape of Mt. Qomolangma, will be transported from Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, to the mountain's base camp by the end of this month, said Zhaxi Doje, designer of the monument, Monday.
The front of the monument is inscribed with "Monument to Measuring Height of Mt. Qomolangma" and a space to list accurate height of the peak.
On the higher part of the front side of the monument is a logo of the 2005 measurement endeavor and on the back of the monument is the basic information about the peak and China's efforts to measure the peak.
According to plan, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at the base camp in May when Chinese surveyors return to write the accurate height of Mt. Qomolangma on the monument.
Earlier reports say that equipment for measuring the height of Mt. Qomolangma has arrived at the base of the current expedition for the mountain. The equipment includes ice cap depth detectors, global positioning system receivers and meteorological instruments.
After trials in Beijing, Zhang Yanping, chief coordinator for the project, said that the instruments will be carried to the summit in May.
China first measured the height of Mt. Qomolangma in 1975 and announced the peak to be 8,848.13 meters high, the highest in the world.
(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2005)
