At exactly 9.17am on Thursday, May 8th, 2008, nineteen mountaineers from China made history by lighting the Olympic Torch at the peak of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the World.

The history-making team dressed in bright red parkas was a little out of breath after their six-hour journey up to the peak. Chanting "One World One Dream" and "Beijing welcomes you" the team unfurled and waved Chinese,Tibetan and Olympic flags. The event was broadcast live throughout the world by the Chinese National Television, who had set up camp at the base of the mountain.

The Olympic torch was carried in a special metal canister. As they neared the summit, the climbers used a wand to pass the flame from the canister to the torch, which has been specially designed to withstand temperatures of up to -40 degrees Celsius and extremely low atmospheric pressure.

However, the torch taken to the Everest is separate from the main Olympic torch, which is making its journey in a different direction in China. The main flame was not taken to the Everest because the exact timing of the climb was dependent on weather conditions at the Everest. If severe conditions had prevented the climb for a couple of weeks, the torch's schedule would have been off and it would not have been able to make the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Additionally, this is something that had never been accomplished before, so officials were not sure if it would be successful.

As it turned out, all these precautions were unneccessary, as the sister torch made it to the Top of the World right on schedule, exactly three months before the big opening day!

Sources:Irish Times, China Daily

Sources:China Daily