Plan for Olympic road up Everest

CHINA plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest to ease the Olympic torch’s journey to the peak of the world’s tallest mountain before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, state media reported yesterday.

Construction of the road, budgeted at €14.67m, would turn a 107km rough path from the foot of the mountain to a base camp at 17,060ft “into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails”, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Xinhua said construction, which would start next week, would take about four months.