DAY 7 (1/3): ROAD TO EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營), Tibet (西藏), 2017.09.22

Referred by Tibetans as “Goddess Mother of Mountains,” Chomolungma (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰) which commonly known as the Mount Everest, towers beyond the rest of the Himalayan peaks along the border between China and Nepal.  From the north, tourists can come close to admire Everest’s majestic north face from the Tent Village (珠穆朗瑪峰大本營), where a cluster of tent structures were set up to serve tourists, while the real base camp for climbers at 5200m is off limit to normal tourists.  At 5150m above sea level, the Tent Village of Everest Base Camp was the highest point in our entire journey.  Arrived in Tibet for a week’s time and we were well acclimatized for the high altitude.  Our plan was to stay the night at the Tent Village to boost our chance to see the world’s highest peak.  Weather was of course the biggest unknown.  It was not uncommon for tourists to be let down by poor weather and find the snow-capped Everest well concealed in the clouds.

At about 8:30am we left Shigatse for Tibet’s Everest Base Camp.  In the car, we were excited and kept our fingers crossed to hope for a moment of clear sky when we arrived at the base camp.  We spent most of the day to cover the 350km distance from Shigatse to the base camp.  The route was mainly well paved along the China-Nepal Friendship Highway, except the last 100km of gravel road before reaching the Tent Village.

Shigatse is known as the “fertile land”.   Along the journey, we often passed by golden fields of Highland Barley (青稞).

Political slogan such as “strengthen ethnic unity, create a beautiful Tibet” could be seen everywhere in Tibet, even on remote mountain slope.

As we headed west on the National Highway 318 (China-Nepal Friendship Highway), we passed by a number of roadside shrines and mountain passes with colourful prayer flags.

Despite Tibet is mainly arid in climate, its river valleys are fertile and heavily cultivated.

The National Highway 318, known as the China-Nepal Friendship Highway, is a nicely paved road that connects Shigatse with the Zhangmu border town.

Some parts of the valley seems like a semi-desert, covered with sand, gravel, salt and moss.

At around 2:30pm, we stopped by a restaurant at the intersection of National Highway 318 (China-Nepal Friendship Highway) and Country Road 216 near Shelkar/ New Tingri (ཤེལ་དཀར། 協格爾鎮) for lunch.

After lunch, we journey continued southwest towards the Everest Base Camp.  Before our car left the National Highway 318, we passed by some highland pastures.

In less than an hour, we finally left the highway and arrived at the gateway of Everest National Park.  Sangzhu dropped us at the admission office to get our admission tickets.

We continued to drive on Zhufeng Road (Mount Everest Road) for another 2 hours.  The sun was moving west as we get closer to our destination.  We were a little nervous because of the unpredictable weather, but also full of anticipation.  At 5:20pm, we were just minutes away from Rongbuk Monastery.  Beyond the clouds in front of us we could barely make out the profile and tip of Chomolungma or Mount Everest (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰).

At 4980m above sea level, Rongbuk Monastery (རྫ་རོང་ཕུ་དགོན་ 絨布寺) is the highest monastery in the world.  It offers tourists simple accommodation.

If the sky was clear, we could see the Mount Everest from the stuba at Rongbuk Monastery (རྫ་རོང་ཕུ་དགོན་ 絨布寺).  Yet, luck was not on our side.  All we could see was a thick layer of clouds.

We knew Chomolungma or Mount Everest (ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ 珠穆朗瑪峰) was right in front of us, but we just couldn’t see it with our own eyes.  The Tent Village of Everest Base Camp (珠穆朗瑪峰大本營) was just minutes away.  All we could hope for was a moment of clear sky before sunset.

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More blog posts on Tibet 2017:
JOURNEY ABOVE THE CLOUDS, Tibet 2017 (西藏之旅2017)
DAY 1: TOUCHDOWN ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD, Lhasa
DAY 1: TRICHANG LABRANG HOTEL (赤江拉讓藏式賓館), Lhasa
DAY 1: KORA AT BARKHOR STREET (八廓街), Lhasa
DAY 2: FIRST GLIMPSE OF POTALA (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 2: KORA OF DREPUNG MONASTERY (哲蚌寺), Lhasa
DAY 2: DREPUNG MONASTERY (哲蚌寺), Lhasa
DAY 2: JOKHANG MONASTERY (大昭寺), Lhasa
DAY 2 : SPINN CAFE (風轉咖啡館), Lhasa
DAY 2: NIGHT VIEW OF POTALA (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 3: POTALA PALACE (布達拉宮), Lhasa
DAY 3: SERA MONASTERY (色拉寺), Lhasa
Day 4: KORA OF GANDEN MONASTERY (甘丹寺), Lhasa
Day 4: GANDEN MONASTERY (甘丹寺), Lhasa
DAY 4: TEA HOUSE AND FAMILY RESTAURANT, Lhasa
DAY 5: ON THE ROAD IN TIBET
DAY 5: MORNING IN SHANNAN (山南)
DAY 5: SAMYE MONASTERY (桑耶寺), Shannan
DAY 5: SAMYE TOWN (桑耶鎮), Shannan
DAY 6: YAMDROK LAKE (羊卓雍錯)
DAY 6: PALCHO MONASTERY (白居寺), Gyantse
DAY 6: WORDO COURTYARD (吾爾朵大宅院), Shigatse
DAY 7: ROAD TO EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營)
DAY 7: EVEREST BASE CAMP (珠峰大本營)
DAY 7: STARRY NIGHT, Everest Base Camp
DAY 8: PANG LA PASS (加烏拉山口), Mount Everest Road
DAY 8: SAKYA MONASTERY (薩迦寺)
DAY 9: TASHI LHUNPO MONASTERY, (扎什倫布寺) Shigatse
DAY 9: ROAD TO NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 9: EVENING AT NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 10: SUNRISE AT NAMTSO LAKE (納木錯)
DAY 10: LAST DAY IN LHASA, Tibet
EPILOGUE: FACES OF LHASA, Tibet