This may be old news to some but China plans to build a 108-kilometre tarmac road to Mt. Everest’s northern base camp. This $150-million-yuan highway will take 4 months to build and will be ready by November 2007.
Xinhua reports that the road is being built to “ease the path of those bearing the Olympic torch’. The Xinhua report also said the new highway would help ease the way for the growing number of tourists who are travelling to base camp, which is 5,200 metres (17,160 feet) above sea level.
Meanwhile, China intends to double the number of tourists visiting Tibet to 6 million by 2010, from the 3 million forecast in 2007, according to Chinese state media. Over 90% of the estimated 2.5 million tourists who visited the region in 2006 were Chinese.
The opening of the first railway to Tibet in July 2006 had given a major boost to Tibet’s tourism sector, which is expected to generate nearly 6 billion yuan ($ 790 million) annually by 2010 or 12% of the region’s gross domestic product.
Personally, I think the circus has just come to town, what do you think?
The Telegraph writes on Chinese plan road to Everest Base Camp.
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