Our team are on their way back down, slowly of course, after the events of yesterday. Our comms have not been great, so we’re reproducing our main story for your pleasure…. 

   By Nick Mulvenney

   EVEREST BASE CAMP, China, May 8 (Reuters) - A Tibetan woman took the Olympic torch the last steps to the top of Everest on Thursday, realising “a dream of all Chinese people”, but Tibetan exiles criticised Beijing for politicising the Games.
    “Long live Tibet!” and “Long live Beijing!”, the climbers, all wearing red, shouted joyously into a TV camera after unfurling the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo.
    The ambitious project to take the torch to the Himalayan peak was cast as the highlight of the relay ahead of the Games, which start in exactly three months’ time, and followed weeks of protests against Beijing’s rule in Tibet.
    “We have realised a promise to the world and a dream of all the Chinese people,” base camp commander Li Zhixin told reporters after being mobbed by jubilant friends and colleagues.
    Communist China has spent billions of dollars on staging the Olympics, eager to project the image of a modern and vibrant country. But protests during the international leg of the torch relay have bruised Chinese pride and provoked a surge of nationalist sentiment.
    Exiled Tibetan officials and rights groups said the Everest flame was in bad taste and not in keeping with the spirit of the Games.
    “During these times when the situation in Tibet is very grave and grim we felt it is very provocative to take the Olympic torch to the Tibetan side of the mountain,” said Thubten Samphel, secretary of the exiled government’s information department in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala.
    “The Chinese are suppressing the Tibetan people … it is not in harmony with the spirit of the Olympics,” he told Reuters.
    Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of Students for a Free Tibet, said in a statement e-mailed from New York: “Beijing’s conquest of Everest is a political move meant to reassert China’s control of Tibet.”
    Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950, and nine years later the Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising against communist rule. He is branded a “separatist” by China, but says he only wants greater autonomy for the region.

    “AGREED TO DISAGREE”
    Anti-Chinese protesters caused serious disruption to some legs of the main torch relay on its journey around the world after deadly riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and subsequent unrest in other Tibetan areas of China.
   Tibetan groups said they planned prayer vigils around the world later on Thursday to mourn those killed in protests in Tibet.
    China says a “Dalai Lama clique” was responsible for the disturbances in Tibet and protests over the Olympic torch.
   The Chinese state-run media this week accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of trying to blacken China’s name and prevent its rise, days after the two sides held a rare round of talks.
    However, an envoy to the Dalai Lama said Chinese negotiators had shown a willingness to engage with the Tibetan side during recent talks, despite major differences on important issues.
    “We agreed on few and disagreed on many … We agreed to disagree,” the envoy, Lodi Gyari, told reporters in Dharamsala. “These views were expressed in a frank and candid manner.”
    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his government’s attitude towards dialogue was “sincere”.
    “We also hope the Dalai Lama can show sincerity by taking concerted actions to truly stop separatist activities, stop plotting and provoking violent actions and stop disrupting the Beijing Olympics,” Qin told a regular news conference.

    EMOTIONS RUN HIGH
    On Thursday morning, five climbers, two of them women, staged the torch relay just shy of the world’s highest peak amid strong winds and minus-30-degree temperatures.
    “Beijing welcomes you!” and “tashi delek”, the climbers said — using a Tibetan greeting meaning “may everything be well” — after escorting the flame in a mini-relay to the 8,848-metre (29,030-foot) peak at the end of a six-hour climb.
    Beijing student Huang Chungui passed the flame to ethnic Tibetan woman Ciren Wangmu, who trudged the final steps unaided by oxygen to hold the torch aloft.
    That prompted jubilation among the reserve climbers, officials and a small team of journalists who had endured thin air at high altitude, sub-freezing temperatures and basic sanitation for nearly two weeks as they waited for the final ascent.
    The tent to which the live pictures were relayed from the summit was rent with cheers and tears, and several renditions of the Chinese national anthem echoed out across the Himalayas.
    The Everest climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge.
    Concerned that protesters would try to disrupt the assault on Everest, which sits astride the border of the Chinese region of Tibet and Nepal, China had effectively closed off the region and released only limited information to the media.
    The flame that crested Everest’s peak was taken from the main Olympic torch when it arrived in Beijing in March.
    The Beijing organisers paused the main torch relay, scheduled to pass through the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday, while the final push for the summit was taking place.
    The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid-June.

Pix from top: Members of the support crew for the Olympic torch relay team celebrate at Everest Base Camp. A replica Olympic torch is held by a member of the support crew. (Photos by David Gray). And, shoppers and residents watch the live coverage of the Olympic torch ascent to Everest shown on a huge television screen in Beijing. Photo by Claro Cortes IV.

Ed: We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage. Certainly the boys had fun up there, although they are now exhausted and are looking forward to a good rest. 

The Beijing Olympic torch is held aloft at the top of Mount Everest on Thursday in this image taken from television footage.

Three months to the day before the Games open, members of a 31-strong team reached the top of the 8,848-metre (29,030-ft) peak carrying the Olympic flame in a lantern before lighting the torch.

The climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge.

Take a look at Nick’s story about the moment so many Chinese have been waiting for.

But the trip is more than just another stopover on the Olympic torch’s journey around the world, read about the controversy and the deep symbolism surrounding the project.

Our Reuters team of Nick, Dave and Mark will be in touch with a us soon to give a personal account of today’s achievement.

You can also catch all the latest Olympics news at our website .

Pix: REUTERS/CCTV via Reuters TV.

ED: No word from the boys today (don’t worry they’re in good health, although the altitude is leaving them a little a breathless). So, here’s Nick’s story that went out on the wire…

    Climbers taking a special Olympic torch up Mount Everest were held up at advanced base camp on Thursday, awaiting better weather to reclaim glory at the top of the world after a calamitous round-the-world relay.
    Anxious to avoid a repeat of the anti-China protests that marred torch’s five-continent relay and preserve a moment of national pride ahead of Beijing’s August Games, China has kept the logistics and timing of the climb under wraps.
    Sun Bin, Everest project manager at the organising committee for Games, confirmed, however, that the climbers had reached the advanced base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain at around 6,500 metres (21,300 feet).
    He added that the wind would have to die down before an attempt was made to scale the final icy slopes up to the 8,848-metre (29,030-foot) Himalayan peak.
    “Normally there is a three to four day window of good weather in the first week of May,” said the former national climbing champion. “We want to try to catch this window to try and summit.
    “Strong winds are the worst conditions,” he added. “Last year, when I was at 7,500 metres the wind was so strong I could not move one step in half an hour. Beyond 8,000 metres, the wind will decide whether you can summit or not.”
    Despite the hope invested in the endeavour, Sun’s colleague, Liu Jian, did not think expedition leader Wang Yong Fung would take any chances with his team.
    “I think he will obey the rules of mountaineering,” said Liu, who with Wang and three others became the first Chinese to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents and reach the North and South Poles.
    The head of the meteorological office said on Wednesday that conditions would not be appropriate to summit until the weekend at the earliest.

    “IT’S NOT A JOKE”
    Sun, who said it usually takes four days to summit from 6,500 metres, successfully battled winds and temperatures of -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit) to conquer Everest last year as part of a test run for the attempt with the Olympic flame.
    His own experience illustrates that the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain are still an extremely hostile environment, with the threat of frostbite particularly acute.
    “For anyone getting to the top of Everest would be very exciting, but the reality is that it’s pretty painful,” he said.
    “I lost the feeling in my feet, I was really worried about it. I just wanted to run down so in the end I just spent about five minutes at the top.”
    Another reminder of how hostile Everest can be is a memorial park at base camp where mounds of rocks and plaques remember climbers who have died. Most of the bodies remain on the slopes.
    “To climb this mountain, you need to take it seriously. It’s not a joke,” said Sun, who said he had seen seven corpses above 8,300 metres.
    Sun, who has spent two years preparing the torch climb, said measures had been taken to alleviate the risks.
    “The north-east route is the most popular route on the Chinese side and it’s very familiar to the climbers,” he said. “They will have fixed ropes up the mountain, they will have the best logistic and information support. All the food and equipment will be carried by the sherpas.”
    Sun said the team was likely to summit around dawn.
    “If we can get the Olympic flame to the top, this would be my happiest time,” he said. “I’m praying for good luck for the climbers, for the Olympic torch relay and the Olympic Games, to have a great success.”

Picture: This is what it’s all about … the specially designed Olympic flame lantern that climbers will carry the Olympic flame to the summit of Mount Everest, also known as Qomolangma, is displayed at a news conference at Everest Base Camp in the Tibet Autonomous Region April 30, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA)

The moment China has been waiting for … well one of many Olympic moments. The torch relay kicked into gear on Monday, but not without a bit of drama. (The above picture is of China’s gold medallist swimmer Luo Xuejuan.)

The Chinese media lauded the event, and several pages of newspapers were devoted to lavish descriptions of the event.

 ”At that moment, my heart was beating so hard!” the Beijing News quoted Quan Maoda, the father of a torch bearer from Inner Mongolia, as saying of the lighting.

Local papers also made much of the fact that the sun came out for the ceremony in Ancient Olympia, after overcast rehearsals. “A perfect start on the road to gold,” read one headline in the China Daily.

“Each day we will pay attention to the torch, deeply knowing that day by day the Olympics are coming closer to us,” the Beijing News quoted Zhu Yuetao, an official in the port city of Qingdao, which will host the sailing events, as saying.

Here’s the relay route:

PROLOGUE
Mar 24    - Torch lit at Ancient Olympia, Greece
Mar 25-29 - Torch Relay in Greece
Mar 30    - Handover ceremony at Panathinaiko Stadium, Athens
Mar 31    - Beijing

April 1 - Almaty 

(When the flame arrives in Beijing, a separate torch will be lit and an attempt will be made to take it up Mount Everest [Mount Qomolangma] on a day in May that presents the best climatic conditions.)

INTERNATIONAL

April 2 - Almaty, 3 - Istanbul, 5 - St Petersburg (Russia), 6 - London, 7 - Paris, 9 - San Francisco, 11 - Buenos Aires, 13 - Dar es Salaam, 14 - Muscat, 16 - Islamabad, 17 - Mumbai, 19 - Bangkok, 21 - Kuala Lumpur, 22 - Jakarta, 24 - Canberra, 26 - Nagano (Japan), 27 - Seoul, 28 - Pyongyang, 29 - Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

CHINA

May 2 - Hong Kong
May 3 - Macau
May 4-6 - HainanProvince: Sanya, Wuzhishan, Wanning, Haikou
May 7-10 - Guangdong Province: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Shantou
May 11-13 - Fujian Province: Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen, Longyan
May 14-16 - Jiangxi Province: Ruijin, Jinggangshan, Nanchang
May 17-19 - Zhejiang Province: Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing
May 20-21 -  Shanghai
May 22-24 - Jiangsu Province: Suzhou, Nantong, Taizhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing
May 26-28 - Anhui Province: Hefei, Huainan, Wuhu, Jixi, Huangshan
May 29-31 - Hubei Province: Wuhan, Yichang, Jingzhou
Jun 1-3 - Hunan Province: Yueyang, Changsha, Shaoshan
Jun 4-6 - Guangxi Region: Guilin, Nanning, Baise
Jun 7-9 - Yunnan Province: Kunming, Lijiang, Xamgyi’nyilha (Shangri-la)
Jun 10-12 - Guizhou Province: Guiyang, Kaili, Zunyi
Jun 13-14 - Chongqing
Jun 15-18 - Sichuan Province: Guangan, Mianyang, Guanghan, Leshan, Zigong, Yibin, Chengdu
Jun 19-21 - Tibet Region: Shannan Diqu, Lhasa
Jun 22-24 - Qinghai Province: Golmud, Qinghai Hu, Xining
Jun 25-27 - Xinjiang Region: Urumqi, Kashi, Shihezi, Changji
Jun 28-30 - Gansu Province: Dunhuang, Jiayuguan, Jiuquan, Tianshu, Lanzhou
Jul 2-4 - Ningxia Region: Zhongwei, Wuzhong, Yinchuan
June 5-7 - Shaanxi Province: Yanan, Yangling, Xianyang, Xian
Jul 8-10  - Shanxi Province: Yuncheng, Pingyao, Taiyuan, Datong
Jul 11-13 - Inner Mongolia Region: Hohhot, Ordos, Baotou, Chifeng
Jul 14-16 - Heilongjiang Province: Qiqihar, Daqing, Harbin
Jul 17-19 - Jilin Province: Songyuan, Changchun, Jilin, Yanji
Jul 20-22 - Liaoning Province: Shenyang, Benxi, Liaoyang, Anshan, Dalian
Jul 23-26 - Shandong Province: Yantai, Weihai, Qingdao, Rizhao, Linyi, Qufu, Taian, Jinan
Jul 28-31 - Henan Province: Shangqiu, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Anyang
Aug 1-3 - Hebei Province: Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan
Aug 4-5 - Tianjin
Aug 6-8 - Beijing
Aug 8   - OPENING CEREMONY

Check out the torch relay web site for more details.

The pix from the top are of Lou Xuejuan; Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou, playing the role of the High Priestess, lights the torch held by first torchbearer Alexandros Nikolaidis, Greece’s Olympic silver medallist for taekwando; and rest of the cast at ancient Olympia. Photos by John Kolesidis and Mal Langsdon.

This week the media were given a peak inside the athletes’ quarters for the Games. On show was a sparse but comfortable-looking apartment in a low-rise grey and white brick building.

It’s a little drab from the outside, but hey, when you buy a house you always check out the kitchen and bathrooms first. Going on the bathroom test, I reckon the accommodation looks ok.

Mind you the rooms might be a tad on the small side if you’re weightlifter, or basketballer!

The big question is will the athletes, in particular, some of the high flying tennis or basketball stars want to stay?

After the Paralympics the village will be converted into a “high-end residential community”.

Apart from facilities for worship for “five major religions” — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism — the village will provide Chinese cultural performances, including tai chi and other martial arts exercises, for athletes’ entertainment, organisers said.

Well the LA Times was certainly impressed.

Take a look inside.

Uh oh, writes John Ruwitch.

Yao Ming announced on Tuesday he’d sit out the rest of the NBA season to nurse an ankle injury and that may mean — shock, horror — the man who is arguably China’s best known athlete and sporting poster boy might miss the biggest sports event in China’s modern history.

ESPN says the decision for Yao to sit out the NBA season (which ends in June), and possibly the Olympics (which starts in August), raises intriguing questions, perhaps the most interesting of which is: Whose call will it be — China’s? The Rockets’?

“The relationship between the NBA, the Houston Rockets, and the Chinese government figures prominently in any and all matters Yao Ming. Even picking him first in the draft was not simple. Now, with Yao Ming slated to be the superstar showpiece of perhaps the most important sporting event in China’s recent history — the 2008 Beijing Olympics — there must be a hundred new ways these international relationships can be tested.

With something this bad having happened, there will be blame to spread around, and future questions to work out.

Will Yao Ming be ready to play in the Olympics? Whose decision will that be? Are the Rockets prepared to let the Chinese team make that call? And what about next season — now that China’s national basketball treasure has injured himself repeatedly on Houston’s watch (he has also had a broken tibia) might there be concerns about his returning to the NBA at all?”

The 27-year-old star centre had this to say: “If I cannot play in the Olympics for my country this time, that would be the biggest loss of my career up to right now. My biggest loss.”

No doubt that would also be a mammoth disappointment for tens of millions in China. And not just fans. The Communist state sports system that identifies talented tots and turns them into world-class athletes — and out of which Yao emerged – might feel a tad upset.

John Ruwitch is a Reuters correspondent based in Hong Kong.

(Thanks to China Digital Times [http://chinadigitaltimes.net/] for the ESPN link.)

Pictures (from top). Yao at Tuesday’s match against the Washington Wizards. Photo by Richard Carson/Reuters. And the big centre holds a flag during the one-year countdown celebrations for the 29th Olympic Games in Tiananmen Square in Beijing August 8, 2007. Photo by David Gray/Reuters

One of our Beijing correspondents, Ken Wills, this week published a guide for those of you who wish to try their hand at driving in Beijing during the Games. Oh dear, good luck!

Have any other Beijingers got advice?

One blogger out there simply advises … don’t! And some comments from an Aussie web site that ran Ken’s piece included these replies:

Nice article, which reflects a lot of the truth. Having driven in Beijing for the past 7 years it is hard for me to go on holiday in the West and behave as I should. Thought the traffic regulations here are the same as in the West, one does virtually what one likes to do..so do I. However, nowadays it pays not to speed as they are very strict and catch you if they can… Summary…I love driving in Beijing. It is actually remarkably safe and there are very few accidents… It’s Cool.

Posted by: Tony van Gevelt of Beijing

Tony, That is honest of you to admit that you treat the traffic laws in Beijing the way most Beijing drivers do: which means damn the rules and everyone for himself. Then again, if I were you, I’d feel ashamed of myself at the same time. I understand that you’d go nowhere in Beijing if you obey the traffic rules as we do in the West. However that doesn’t mean I’d stoop as low and join the law-defying Beijingners. It has not escaped my notice that Westerners, models citizens in their own countries, become less inhibitied once they get climatized in China—it speaks a lot about the respect (lack thereof to be more exact) people have for the rules in that country. I should know. I am from Beijing.

Posted by: Li of Sydney

I’m an Aussie who drives in Beijing and, while it can be hair-raising, I feel much better when I am the one in control of the car, rather than putting my my life in the hands of one of the local cab drivers!! What you wrote is true, though somewhat exaggerated. One thing worth adding, besides the breathalyzer (which I’ve never seen myself) is that the police do absolutely nothing. They leave it all to cameras, which oversee nothing but speeding and red-light infractions. So about one-tenth of the drivers here figure that they are better off removing the licence plates from their cars. When caught speeding, they will not be caught unless the police pull their car over. As if that’s ever going to happen!! I tend to follow the law whenever it is practical (although sometimes you get nowhere if you try), and I’ve been mounting a one-man campaign to get people to use these fancy new gadgets called indicators. If you indicate, I’ll bend over backwards to let you in, but if you don’t, I’ll actively attempt to block your path. Some people just don’t bother, and it’s my number one pet peeve.

Posted by: Shay of Beijing

Haha, Shay, good luck and have fun driving in Beijing. I’ve had enough and count myself lucky having escaped that jungle, whole. Now I feel much safer driving on F3, Pacific Highway in and around Sydney. Hey, I just came back from a road trip to Gold Coast during the X-mas holiday and 99.9% of fellow motorists abide by the rules. Perth/Fremantle drivers are braver cutting in without giving much heed to traffic (my recent observation in WA) but I’d take Aussie road any day over Beijing’s.

Posted by: Li of Sydney

One key rule I lived by when living in Beijing was: “Look four ways when crossing a one way street.” I’m sure it saved me from being potential roadkill on many occassions.

Posted by: Shelly of of Hong Kong

So, now it’s official our blogshere will soon be shared with the athletes themselves. This can only be a good thing, an opinion shared by fellow bloggers. I for one can’t wait to read their take on everything from life in the athletes’ village to life on the track.

Now, comes the tricky part. Interpreting the rules, and who and how they will be policed.

For instance: The IOC says blogs must be kept within the IOC format and “confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience” and that they should also adhere to the Olympic spirit “and be dignified and in good taste”.

Got that? And there will be no cheating, drug use, politiking etc.  Hmmmm.

A couple of other things regarding their blogs. Athletes or officials who blog can only post still pictures taken outside accredited areas or their own pictures taken within these areas that do not contain any sporting action. Apparently this is to protect rights holders as Games broadcasting contracts are worth several billion euros.

So, Michael don’t forget to take your camera again this year. But no video or audio!

And athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain.

Now then, let the blogs begin! 

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps of the U.S. takes a happy snap during the closing ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters

Sport is politics, and heaven knows politics can be a sport.

So, can we separate the two as Ryan eloquently argues in “sportplomacy, as stupid as it sounds”  following the latest hullabaloo brought about by Spielberg. Is sport just a game, as Ryan says? Or is it much more than that?

Sport was used as a very powerful political tool in bringing down the apartheid regime in South Africa, that’s for sure. 

But with the Olympics there is a conundrum. That is Section 51 of the Olympic Charter, which states:

“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

Furthermore, a text adopted by the IOC Executive Board last April in Beijing said:

“The Olympic parties shall work to maintain harmonious relations with state authorities, in accordance with the principle of universality and political neutrality of the Olympic Movement.”

American water polo player Brad Greiner in an article in the Wall Street Journal argues this is a grey area and that there are a number of ways  to talk about Darfur when in Beijing that do not go against the Charter.

Greiner created Team Darfur, along with fellow American speed skater Joey Cheek. Greiner says he is not advocating a boycott of the Games, and believes athletes have the most power if they are in Beijing where they can speak.

Greiner thinks a way around the Charter, is to raise the issue in interviews with news media. He also says “activist” athletes could also wear symbolic attire in a form of solidarity. The WSJ article says nearly 250 members of the so-called Team Darfur are currently training wearing red, green and black sweatbands as means of protest.

Joey Cheek (2nd L), Olympic Gold Medal Winner (speed skating) and co-founder of Team Darfur, speaks at a rally outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, last December. Picture by Hyungwon Kang/Reuters.

And the picture on the left shows Joey in action at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Picture by Max Rossi/Reuters.

Do you want to take a peek at what is happening in China in the build-up to the Games? Well, Reuters can provide you with the perfect site. (Well, we would say that wouldn’t we!)

This picture by Sheng Li is just one of dozens of brilliant Reuters photographs which can be viewed at our Olympic countdown gallery.