Going to travel to Tibet!

Brushing the Dust from Everest

Activity Route and Schedule

On May 20, all volunteers will arrive in Lhasa by plane (3,700 meters above sea level)

On May 21st, physical fitness was adjusted and the garbage on both sides of the Potala Palace Square was cleaned (3700 meters above sea level)

On May 22nd, the Beijing-Lhasa joint signature Everest environmental protection event was launched at the Tibet Museum. Ceremony (3,700 meters above sea level)

Potala Palace swearing-in ceremony on May 23, from Lhasa to Shigatse (3,900 meters above sea level)

Shigatse environmental protection charity event on May 24, cleaning Tashilhunpo Monastery, 10,000 environmentally friendly garbage bags were donated to Tingri Everest Nature Reserve (3,900 meters above sea level)

On May 25, we traveled from Shigatse to Tingri County (4,300 meters above sea level)

Environmental protection activities in Tingri County on May 26th, cleaning of Xiegeer Temple

On May 27th, went to Everest Base Camp to set up camp (5200 meters above sea level)

May 28 The press center of Mount Everest's "Earth's Third Pole Operation Everest" was established, and environmental protection team members were trained for adaptability (at an altitude of 5,200 meters)

Environmental cleaning was conducted at the Everest base camp on May 29 (at an altitude of 5,200 meters) , the 6500-meter cleaning team set off to the 5800-meter transition camp

On May 30, the 6500-meter cleaning team set off from an altitude of 5800 meters to 6500 meters, and the 6500-meter cleaning began

May 31 Japan completed the donation event for Xiaoqu Zongbasong Primary School, the world's highest altitude, established a permanent environmentally friendly garbage station on Mount Everest, and the 6500-meter team members retreated to Tingri County

Tingri County rested on June 1

From Dingri County to Shigatse on June 2

From Shigatse to Lhasa on June 3

On June 4, Lhasa rested, and some representatives of the environmental protection team went to Rina Send condolences to the family

On June 5th (World Environment Day), Lhasa clean-up results were handed over, Everest Environmental Protection Awareness Day activities; went to Namtso Environmental Protection Day on June 6th Activities

Farewell to Tibet on June 7, welcome ceremony in Beijing

Activity background and schedule

Activity background

Qomolangma, in Tibetan It means "the third goddess" and is also called the third pole of the earth after the Antarctic and the North Pole because of its special geographical conditions.

The environmental conditions in the Mount Everest region have always been comparable to those of the other two poles of the earth - the Antarctic and Arctic regions. Scientists have found through observation and research that the environmental conditions in the three polar regions of the earth, including Mount Everest, the Antarctic, and the Arctic, are in a background state that is less or not subject to external pollution, which can be regarded as the "environmental background value" on the earth. ".

As the highest mountain in the world, it has always been admired by the world for its tranquility and purity. However, now this "goddess"'s coat of "tranquility and purity" is being covered by all kinds of garbage. Since the 1950s, as the craze for climbing Mount Everest has heated up year by year, more and more waste has had a non-negligible impact on the fragile ecological environment of Mount Everest. Especially since the Chinese mountaineering team climbed to the summit from the north slope for the first time in 1960, human activities to climb Mount Everest from the north slope in China have increased day by day, and the environment around each camp has been polluted to varying degrees. Climbers and hikers leave a large amount of domestic garbage and feces such as tents, sleeping bags, oxygen bottles, batteries, plastic bags, etc. around each camp and between camps on various climbing routes. The amount of waste left behind reaches up to 67 tons every year. . Even the bodies of mountaineers who were buried deep in the ice and snow due to mountain disasters are, to some extent, a form of pollution to Mount Everest.

According to statistics, from 1921 to 1999, 615 tons of waste were discarded into the glaciers of Mount Everest, leaving many regrets to the sacred snow-capped mountain holy land. The excrement and waste from climbers has worsened the pollution, and the retreat of the glaciers is gradually becoming apparent.

Under normal conditions, steel takes 95 years to completely rust, and plastic products take about 220 years to decompose. However, the climate of Mount Everest is cold and arid, and the decomposition time of waste is much longer. The results of scientists' inspections and observations on Mount Everest show that the snowfall on Mount Everest contains trace amounts of harmful components such as DDT and lead, and the concentrations are getting higher and higher. As the highest environmental monitoring station in the world, the purity of Mount Everest has a vital impact on the global environment. What’s even more worrying is that waste discarded in high-altitude areas cannot be cleaned up unless professional mountaineers are organized.

In this context, the "Earth's Third Pole Mount Everest Environmental Protection Action" was gradually conceived and launched. From September 2 to September 16, 2004, 24 volunteers participated in the first "2004 Earth's Third Pole Everest Environmental Protection Action". This Everest environmental protection activity successfully completed the environmental protection campaign on Mount Everest. A total of 8 tons of garbage have been cleaned up during the peak cleaning work. The cleaning range is from 5100 meters to 6500 meters above sea level. It is mainly domestic garbage left by climbers, such as wine bottles, cans, packaging plastic bags, etc. There are also many Such as alcohol stoves, used tents, waste oxygen tanks, climbing ropes and other large solid wastes.

At 11:08 on May 22, 2005, Chinese surveying and mapping personnel once again set up a red measurement target on the top of the earth after 30 years and began to measure the height of Mount Everest. At the same time that the survey team climbed Mount Everest, the 2005 Mount Everest Protection Operation was launched simultaneously in Lhasa and Beijing.

This event will be held from May 20 to June 7. A 35-person environmental protection team composed of reporters from more than a dozen news media across the country, representatives of corporate sponsors, and environmental volunteers recruited from the society, Together with members of the local Tibetan mountaineering team and alpine cooperation staff, *** formed a cleaning team of more than 100 people to comprehensively clean up mountaineering waste between the Everest base camp with an altitude of 5,120 meters and an altitude of 8,000 meters. All environmental protection volunteers who participated in the cleanup carried the theme of "humanity, inheritance, and participation" and overcame the harsh natural conditions such as severe cold, hypoxia, wind and snow brought by high altitudes, and picked up more than 400 bags of garbage in one day. On World Environment Day, June 5, the waste was manually transported to Lhasa and handed over to the local government for harmless treatment. This is also the highest environmental protection event in the world so far.

This Everest environmental protection activity started in 2004 is planned to continue until 2008. The large-scale Everest clean-up activities organized every year in the future will be composed of news media reporters, social environmental protection volunteers and corporate representatives, and will work with local Tibetan mountaineering team members to carry out long-term "environmental cleaning" of Mount Everest and contribute to the greenness of Beijing. The Olympic Games adds to its splendor.

Song Xiaonan

A phone call suddenly pulled me back to the real space from the journey of measuring thousands of miles of mountains and rivers. In the time machine playback, I retreated to March 20, 1998. The platform of Beijing West Railway Station... The shutter rang, Peking University climbed the 8,000-meter peak in celebration of its 100th anniversary, and the figures of all the mountaineering team members on the Cho Oyu expedition were frozen on the film of my camera. During my final farewell blessings to the mountaineers who boarded the train, I held the hand of a very slender and delicate girl I had never seen before. Behind this hand was the protagonist of this book. I saw The most petite, most perseverant, weak-looking but strong-hearted girl on the mountaineering adventure journey - Lu Yan.

Mountain climbing expeditions have always been the business of a group of rough and bold men. Since the last century, women have joined this field closest to death. China's mountaineering adventure travel began in the 1980s. Countless explorers have drifted, climbed, and hiked in their own way. On the 9.6 million square kilometers of Chinese land, they have extended the traditions of their ancestors in a modern scientific way. It filled a large number of historical gaps and completed some very important geographical discoveries. It was these adventure travelers who became China's first volunteers to pay attention to environmental protection. With the keen eyes of explorers and discoverers, they discovered the rapid deterioration of the ecology and the rapid pollution of the environment. Through the media and their own actions, they helped the entire society Bringing unprecedented attention to the environment.

The footsteps of explorers are the steps of human exploration and advancement.

However, the pace of human beings, with the development of explorers, has brought more and more people into nature, which has brought disasters to nature and the environment. In less than 100 years, the problems caused by humans to nature and the environment have reached the highest level in the world. The place on the top of the earth that we as a whole are proud of...

The first time I went to Mount Everest was in 1992. Since then, I have traveled to 7 prefectures and 72 counties in Tibet. During my travels, I saw it from countless angles and on countless mountain passes. However, I can never describe the shock I felt when I first saw it nearly 200 kilometers away, its majesty reaching into the sky, its overwhelming momentum as the king of mountains, and its incomparable reputation in the geographical world. . At that moment, I understood why the Tibetan people kowtowed their heads and traveled thousands of kilometers on pilgrimage, and understood the unique spiritual life they live in the highest place in the world, the place closest to the sun. Mount Everest is one of those mountains that is once seen once in a lifetime and will haunt you forever.

After traveling for several days to reach the foot of Mount Everest, after waiting for several days, Mount Everest showed me its unprecedented majesty in a few minutes in the evening. I took a photo called These are the four unique photos of Everest: the first is that the huge body of 8848 meters is not covered by a cloud; the second is that the mountain is illuminated by the sun and the sky is already dark; the third is that the entire mountain emits golden light in the evening sunset. It's like a golden mountain; the fourth is that the snow on the mountain is particularly heavy. Due to climate warming, glaciers have melted. Since then, I have seen photos of Mount Everest taken in different periods with less and less ice and snow, and more and more exposed rocks on the mountain. A golden snow mountain is quietly turning into a black mountain...

Amidst my worries, I was delighted to see many people taking environmental protection actions on the plateau, and I also saw a familiar figure, my classmate when I was studying at Peking University - Lu Yan.

I have known Lu Yan for 9 years. As I read Lu Yan’s words, her petite body carrying a heavy bag swayed in front of my eyes again: she climbed in the Shanying Society of Peking University. The rock wall, the running track on the playground for mountaineering physical training, the crowded recruitment meeting at Shanying Club, the chorus performance before visiting three European countries (Lv Yan is a senior member of the Peking University Chorus, her singing voice is as beautiful as the sound of nature) ), film screening activities at the Photography Association, on the climbing route of Mount Yuzhu in Qinghai, at the camp of Cho Oyu, the sixth highest peak in the world in Tibet... In my eyes, Lv Yan is constantly surpassing herself and surpassing those who are better than her. The challenges and climbs of much stronger opponents bring a girl's beauty, talent, wisdom, perseverance and courage to the fullest on the stage of life and struggle.

Qomolangma used to be the place least visited by humans. Like the two poles, the environmental condition is a background state with little or no external pollution, which can be regarded as the "environmental background value" on the earth. However, Such a holy and final pure land has also been polluted by humans in recent years. Fortunately, more people have paid attention to the pollution on Mount Everest and started environmental protection actions with the support of all walks of life.

Lv Yan, who now has a pair of "very slender and delicate hands of a girl that I have never seen before", leads us on the road to the highest peak in the world, through the "Third Pole of the Earth" "Peak Environmental Protection Action" took us on a unique journey of double purification of nature and soul by taking risks, breaking into the restricted area of ??life, and completing the mission in a harsh environment of extreme cold, lack of oxygen, wind and snow, and dangers that can occur at any time. The arduous and highest-altitude environmental protection activity in history. These hands will pick up the "highest-altitude garbage" ever and take it down the mountain for final disposal. At the Everest base camp, they experienced the death of Ren Na, a famous mountaineer who had climbed the world's 13 8,000-meter peaks; they experienced the dangerous situation of environmental protection volunteer Chenchen who was diagnosed with a plateau cold but was unable to descend; Climbing to an altitude of 6,500 meters in tears, cleaning out 400 bags of garbage in a thin air zone, and handing it over to the local government, the whole process was thrilling, touching and memorable.

Walking alone in the desolate and uninhabited no-man's land of northern Tibet, I often don't meet anyone for several days, and I can't say a word. After being in a silent world for a long time, I have a unique feeling. I often feel the presence of the universe.

The earth we live on is just a planet from the sun among the 10 million known stars in the universe. It is also the only planet known to have intelligent life. In the lifeless thinness and infinite light-year darkness of the universe, the earth drifts alone. 4.6 billion years. The history of the birth of our human civilization is only a few thousand years old. Often when I am camping alone, I think of human beings not to be the end of the beautiful life on the earth, not to bury the mountains and rivers, the earth and the ocean with garbage and pollution. . Lighting a bonfire and looking at the distant starry sky, I hope that one day when alien intelligent life comes to visit the earth, our earth will still be the most beautiful planet, with vast blue seas, mountains, clear waters, and full of life, and there will be no wars and disasters for mankind. And all the people riding the ship of the earth have good luck in the dual journey of personal life and human destiny in the vast universe.

Additional note: After writing this preface and reading Lu Yan’s entire book, my tears overflowed from my eyes and flowed as long as I could. Everest, Xiegar, Tingri, Lhasa, Shigatse, The Yarlung Zangbo River, Potala Palace, Ngari, Hoh Xil... the place names that jumped into my eyes made it impossible for me to distinguish the time and space at this moment. The experience of the three-year journey throughout Tibet, and the past events of the 18 years on the road that I rarely recall came flooding back. It turns into warm and soft tears in my heart, melting the ice outside my memory.

Song Xiaonan: traveler, explorer, photographer, first traveler in China - the first person to travel all over China

Set off from Tiananmen Square in Beijing on March 24, 1987. I started to travel across China on a county-by-county basis. I planned to cover one county in three days and it took me 21 years to travel across China. At present, after going through many ups and downs, we have visited all 100 cities and counties in Xinjiang, all 79 cities and counties in Tibet, all 96 banners and counties in Inner Mongolia, all 161 cities and counties in Sichuan, and all 1,235 cities and counties in 18 provinces, covering an area of With a total area of ??7.2 million square kilometers, it has become the traveler and explorer who has in fact traveled the widest territory and visited the most cities and counties in China’s history.

Cao Jun

Just a week before Lu Yan asked me to write this preface, I attended the 15th anniversary celebration of the Shenzhen Cycling Association in Shenzhen and met the staff of the association. I was selling a book called "10 Years of Personal Experience in Hoh Xil - Volunteer Narratives". One of the volunteers in the book was a familiar friend of mine, Zou Zhuogang, Secretary General of the Cycling Association. My heart was touched when I read Lao Zou’s story about how he and a group of volunteers directed traffic on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway to control traffic flow and reserve passages to protect the migration of Tibetan antelopes. Lao Zou, like me, is an outdoor sports enthusiast. He started outdoor sports purely out of personal hobbies. But obviously, more and more outdoor sports enthusiasts go out of the city because they like to communicate with nature. However, they still cannot escape the serious impact of human activities on nature in places far away from the city, so they invest in protecting nature. Went among the team.

In the past 20 years, the relationship between people engaged in outdoor sports in China and the natural world has gone through three stages. In the mid-1980s, walking outdoors was basically due to the needs of work, and to fight against the harsh natural environment due to national tasks. At this time, the relationship between man and nature was one of struggle, and the most typical word in it was "conquer." From the late 1980s to the 1990s, more and more outdoor sports enthusiasts emerged. They came to nature for the purpose of personal release. They were more proactive and independent and pursued sensory and personal experiences. Enjoyment, what we see at this level is the communication and exchange between individuals and nature. In recent years, a new stage has begun to emerge, that is, more and more outdoor enthusiasts hope that humans and nature can live in harmony, protect the original ecological natural landscape and continue to develop, and promote low-impact outdoor sports. The emergence of this stage is attributed to volunteers and non-governmental organizations that persisted in ecological protection in the early years, such as Yang Xin's Green Rivers and Liang Congjie's Friends of Nature. Nowadays, the scale of this team is getting larger and larger. The whole society is aware of the importance of ecological protection. Even our government has proposed the concept of "harmonious society". This is indeed the progress of our society and the level of spiritual civilization. improvement.

Lv Yan is my teammate in the Peking University Mountaineering Team. She was the team doctor when we climbed Cho Oyu in 1998 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Peking University. She was meticulous, considerate and strong. She left a lasting impression on all our team members during that climbing event. A deep impression. I couldn't help but sweat when I heard that she participated in cleaning up Mount Everest. Even cleaning up garbage below 6,500 meters is not an easy task for any ordinary climber. However, after seeing Lu Yan’s diary and her joyful expression after returning, I understood that this is not only an honor, but also the satisfaction of fulfilling social responsibilities. The Mount Everest clean-up activity has been carried out for two years. In addition to the protection and restoration of the environment in the Mount Everest region, this activity itself also constantly reminds climbers and all outdoor sports enthusiasts to engage in all outdoor activities in a low-impact manner. As the famous saying goes, "Leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but photos." Thanks to Lu Yan and her teammates for everything they have done to protect Mount Everest.

July 10, 2005 in Guangzhou

Cao Jun: Secretary-General of Shenzhen Mountaineering Outdoor Sports Association, an early mountaineering enthusiast in China.

Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Peking University, Class of 1988, and Master’s degree in Glacier, Department of Urban Environment, Peking University, Class of 1999. One of the first batch of members of the Peking University Mountain Eagle Club, he served as the president of the Shanying Club and the captain of the mountaineering team. He has successfully climbed to the tops of: Qinghai Yuzhu Peak, Xinjiang Muztag Peak, Tibet Nyenchen Tanglha Peak, Tibet Ningjin Kangsha Peak, Xinjiang Bogda Peak, Tibet Sandan Kangmul Peak, Tibet Jiangsanglam Peak ( And served as a mountaineering festival coach), Yunnan Haba Snow Mountain (and served as a mountaineering festival coach), Europe's highest peak - Mount Elbrus, Australia's highest peak - Mount Kosciuszko, Sichuan Siguniang Mountain Yaofeng (as a mountaineering team leader).