Interesting Facts about our Expedition :: CHO OYU 2006~EVEREST 2004: Friendship Beyond Borders Expeditions

...about Cho Oyu

= Cho Oyu (Zhuoaoyou) is the sixth highest mountain in the world. Its elevation is 8,201 metres (26,906 feet).

= There are only 14 peaks of 8,000+ meters in height in the world.

= For all mountains of the world, height is not always directly portional to the difficulty in climbing them. Weather, remoteness, steepness, and terrain are also major factors.

= Cho Oyu was the 5th of the 8,000 meter peaks to be climbed. Annapurna in Nepal was climbed in 1950. Three years later, Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and China/Tibet and Nanga Parbat in the Karakoram of Pakistan were climbed. The following year, K2 in the Karakoram of Pakistan on the border of China and Cho Oyu in China/Tibet were climbed.

= Cho Oyu lies in the Himalaya and is 20km west of Mount Everest.

= The word “Himalaya” means “Realm of the Snow Gods” in Sanskrit.

= Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan.

= China is planning to have a team of its mountaineers carry the Olympic Flame to the top of Mount Everest (Qomolungma) and broadcast the event live during the pre-Games torch relay in 2008. Logistically, taking the flame to the highest point on Earth is not the biggest problem, they say. "Going up may not be too complicated, but filming the whole thing will be very complex," says Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Game.

= Five percent of China's population, or over 60 million people, are handicapped, and the government began large-scale efforts to rehabilitate them in the 1980s. They have announced goals that

By 2010, all the handicapped in cities and developed rural areas will have access to rehabilitative services, while 70 percent of those living in underdeveloped rural areas will receive this aid.
By 2015, all the handicapped in the country will have access to rehabilitative services.

= The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has declared 2003-2012 as the second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons = National Aid to the Disabled Day in China is the third Sunday of May each year. In 2004, Nawang and our Friendship Beyond Borders team reached the summit on May 16th, which was National Aid to the Disabled Day in China that year.

More information about efforts in China and Asia to help amputees and other disabled people

Interesting Facts

...about Cho Oyu

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