Chutian Metropolis Daily News, Everest Base Camp (Special Correspondent Chen Bolei
Reporter Cao Zhikai) After traveling for 12 days and covering 4,000 kilometers from the river city to Everest Base Camp, yesterday five fellow Wuhan natives, having read our newspaper report, took the opportunity of a self-driving tour to come as a group to cheer on the members of the China University of Geosciences mountaineering team.
At around 11 a.m. that day, our reporter and a member of the China University of Geosciences mountaineering team were passing through the checkpoint at Everest Base Camp when they saw five tourists trying to enter the camp but being turned away.
“We’re all members of a car club. We had originally planned to drive to Tibet in September, but after seeing the Chutian Metropolis Daily report about the China University of Geosciences mountaineering team on April 5, we set off the next day. The members of the China University of Geosciences mountaineering team are amazing—we wanted to come to Everest to meet them,” said Ji Zan, one of the car club members and a staff member from the Wuhan Library. Their group of 11 arrived yesterday in two vehicles, with three more vehicles expected to arrive tomorrow.
Because tourists are not allowed to enter the base camp where the mountaineering team is stationed, the party secretary of the China University of Geosciences mountaineering team communicated with the checkpoint and brought the five fellow natives inside. However, due to severe altitude sickness in one of them, after staying for nearly three hours, he had to return down the mountain without even having lunch.