A teenager yesterday climbed the 88 floors of Hong Kong's tallest building in a fund-raising effort so he can join a youth expedition to Chile. James Stansfeld, 18, of Island School, took 22 minutes to tackle the 2,500 steps of Two International Finance Centre in Central. The building, which will open next month, is the third tallest skyscraper in the world. James raised $21,000 for his feat to help satisfy a requirement by the British-based Raleigh International, a youth development charity. By raising $27,000 for the charity he can attend a three-month programme in the South American country. The teenager had already raised $11,000 in a school raffle. He persuaded four of his friends - Luke Bowles, Mark Barnett, Gaetan Damberg-Ott and Elmer Cheng - to join him in his climb, which he thought would take him an hour. 'It went quicker than we had expected,' he said. 'We ran a bit at first and then we walked quite fast. It was good fun.' James, a prefect in Year 13, said he exercised at a gym in preparation for his ascent and went hiking. His parents, brother, sister and classmates cheered on the boys. James said he was looking forward to the Chilean expedition, which will include community work, environmental projects and trekking. He leaves the school this summer and is taking a year off before studying law in England. James will represent Hong Kong among 100 young people from around the world on the three-month expedition from October. 'I was searching for a programme on the internet and found this one,' James said. 'My sister did something similar in Kenya two years ago.' Two IFC was developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land, Hong Kong and China Gas, Bank of China Group and the MTR Corporation.
