Changing China
Giant on the move
Explorer running with the torch
Wong How Man is one of China’s best known and most active explorers, whose accomplishments include an expedition that discovered a new source of the Yangtze, China’s longest river.
More recently the Hong Kong native and his group, China Exploration & Research Society, have taken on a number of conservation projects in Tibetan areas of China — work that helped him land a spot as an Olympic torch runner last week.
Wong, one of Time magazine’s Asian heroes, carried the torch briefly on a section of the route in Qinghai province — home to many Tibetans — on June 23, opting for the lower-key destination to draw attention to his work rather than the more controversial leg in Tibet.
He wrote an e-mail about his experience to Reuters Taiwan bureau chief, Doug Young:
Day 14 – Mission accomplished
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.
