Mount Everest’s precise height revealed: China and Nepal announce the summit stands 29,032 feet tall after re-measuring it to end decades-long debate
- China’s long-running dispute with Nepal over the height of Everest is settled
- They jointly declared the world’s greatest peak now stands at 29,032 ft tall
- Came after both countries sent surveyors for measurement in 2019 and 2020
- Eight Chinese mountaineers reached the snow-capped summit point on May 27
China and Nepal have jointly announced a new height for Mount Everest, ending a decade-long discrepancy between the two nations.
The world’s greatest mountain now stands 29,032 feet (8,848.86 meters) tall, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday, slightly more than Nepal’s previous measurement and about 13 feet (four metres) taller than China’s.
The new height was agreed on after the two counties sent surveyors from their respective sides of the mountain in 2019 and 2020.
China and Nepal have jointly announced a new height for Mount Everest, ending a decade-long discrepancy between the two nations. This file photo shows members of a Chinese surveying team heading for the summit of Mount Everest on May 27, 2020
Nepal and China launched a scientific research project this year to determine the exact height of Everest. FILE – A member of a Chinese surveying team sets up a survey equipment on the summit of Mount Everest also known locally as Mount. Qomolangma, on May 27, 2020
Nepal and China launched a scientific research project this year to determine the exact height of Everest, an expedition described by Chinese government as ‘an eternal symbol of the friendship between the two countries’.
Nepal sent its own team of surveyors to the summit in 2019, while China’s expedition occurred in May this year.
On May 27, eight Chinese mountaineers arrived at the summit point of Mount Everest after climbing for nine hours.
Telescope video camera footage released by state broadcaster CCTV captures the extraordinary moment climbers reaching the summit point buried in deep snow.
On May 27, a team of eight Chinese climbers set off from their base camp on a conquest to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Pictured, other members who remained at the team’s base camp celebrate their eight team members reaching the mountain’s peak on the same day
The mountain, lies in the Himalayas on the border between China and Nepal, has been the centre of a debate between the two countries for years.
Nepal previously measured Everest’s height as 29,028.87 feet (8,848 metres), while China put it at 29017.16 feet (8,844.43 metres), because it did not include the snow cap.
There had also been debate over the actual height of the peak and concern that it might have shrunk after a major earthquake in 2015.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said the two sides were committed to jointly protecting the environment around Everest and cooperating in scientific research, reported Xinhua.
The world’s tallest mountain now stands at 29,032 feet (8,848.86 meters). In this file photo taken on September 14, 2013 Mount Everest is seen from an aircraft over Nepal
After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Nepal last October, the two countries agreed to remeasure the height of the mountain in a bid to end the long-standing dispute once for all.
China has previously conducted six major surveys of the mountain, known in China as Qomolangma, since the establishment of the People´s Republic in 1949. The successful summiting today would mark the country’ seventh conquest.
But only the surveying results from two ascents have been revealed to the public, according to the press. Mount Everest’s height was registered by China at 29,029.3 feet (8,848.13 metres) in 1975 and 29,017.16 feet (8,844.43 metres) in 2005.