First the Great Wall of China, now the Great Highway of Everest.
China, taking advantage of nonexistent labor laws, plans to build a highway on the side of Mount Everest to ease the Olympic torch’s journey to the peak of the world’s tallest mountain before the 2008 Beijing Games.
Construction of the road, budgeted at $19.7 million, would turn a 67-mile rough path from the foot of the mountain to a base camp at 17,060 feet “into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails,” a state-run news agency said.
Construction, which will start next week, will take just four months. After that, the workers will be tasked with building a giant pyramid. OK, just kidding on that.
Organizers for the Beijing Summer Olympics plan the longest torch relay in Olympic history, at 85,000 miles. Taking the torch to the top of Everest is seen by some as a way for Beijing to reassert its political claims to Tibet.
The day before the torch relay was announced, five Americans unfurled banners at a base camp calling for an independent Tibet. They were then arrested and expelled from China.
