China will build a $20 million blacktop highway on Mount Everest

[kurth]

China Plans Highway on Mount Everest
The Associated Press
Monday, June 18, 2007; 9:49 PM

BEIJING -- China will build a $20 million blacktop highway on Mount Everest as part of the route for the Olympic torch relay, state media reported Tuesday.

Xinhua News Agency said the construction would turn a rough, 67-mile road stretching from the foot of the mountain to a base camp at 17,060 feet, into a paved "highway fenced by undulating guardrails."

Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, is 29,035 feet tall.

It said construction would start next week and would take about four months and the new highway would become a major route for tourists and mountaineers...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061801582.html