Olympic Torch conquers Mt. Everest

The Beijing Olympic flame reached the top of Mt. Everest or Mt. Qomolangma as it is known in the Tibetan language at 9:18 a.m. Beijing time Thursday.

A report released by the official Xinhua news agency said that the Chinese climbers held the Olympic torch, the Olympic flag, the Chinese flag and the Beijing Olympics emblem at the peak. It said that the climbers started scaling the peak at 3:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and reached peak of 8848.43 meters around 9:17 a.m.

The last of the five torchbearers, Cering Wangmo, hoisted the sacred flame at the world's highest summit. The relay started with female climber Gyigyi as the first bearer and Wang Yongfeng as the second.