Environmental fee to help clean up trash on world’s highest peak   

西藏將向珠峰登山者收環保費 每人100至200美元

西藏自治區登山管理中心辦公室主任張明興5日接受中新社記者采訪時表示，將加強珠峰垃圾清理工作，已計劃從今年起向登山者收取相關環保費用，而后組織專項珠峰垃圾清理工作。 [查看全文]

(ECNS) - China's Tibet autonomous region plans to charge climbers of Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, an environmental fee of US$100-200 starting this year, in a bid to remove trash from the world's highest mountain.

Zhang Mingxing, the director of Tibet's mountaineering administration center, says his organization and the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve jointly launched a cleanup of the mountain last year and will continue the campaign in the long run.

He also says that both Nepal and China's Tibet have stepped up efforts to clean up trash on the mountain. In recent years, the two countries have regularly exchanged ideas and shared environmental protection measures in this regard, he says.

The Nepali mountaineering season began this week, British newspaper The Guardian has reported, and there is much human excrement along the pathway to the mountain, which not only harms the local environment, but is also likely to spread disease.

So far, more than 4,000 international climbers have successfully reached the summit of Mount Qomolangma. In 2014, more than 180 climbers made the attempt and 120 of them succeeded.

Tibet will kick off its 2015 spring mountaineering season this April.