Climbing fans celebrate Olympic 100-day countdown on Yuzhu Peak

XINING, Northwest China, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Ten climbing fans scaled the 6,178-meter-high Yuzhu Peak in northwest China on Wednesday morning to celebrate the 100-day countdown of the Beijing Olympics.

Surrounded by many 5,000-meter peaks, Yuzhu is the highest one of the Kunlun Mountains in Qinghai Province, where the precious Kunlun jade were produced to make Olympic medals for the Games in August.

The ten fans are among the amateurs participating in the 2008 Yuzhu Peak Climbing Festival, said Li Weidong, who is in charge of this event.

Li said that 12 fans from Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and other cities started to climb the peak at 4:00 a.m. Beijing time from C1 Camp at the altitude of 5,800 meters. After nearly seven hours, ten of them including three women finally reached the summit.

Yuzhu is regarded as the best place for climbing beginners as its route requires less technique. China Mountaineering Association began to organize the such kind of climbing festival in 2001 and the peak has become an important training base for the novices.

Yuzhu is located about 10 kilometers east of the Kunlun Pass and 160 kilometers from Golmud, an industrial city along the Qinghai-Tibet railway.