China denies changing height of Mount Everest, as row leaves Beijing, Kathmandu 12 feet apart
Rebuttal comes after Nepalese sherpa tells The New York Times that China adjusted its figures to win back climbers
China has denied changing its figure for the official height of Mount Everest following a reported drop off in the number of climbers tackling the world’s highest peak from the Tibet side.
In an interview with Xinhua, an unnamed official from the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation said China had not “at any time or under any circumstances given up its findings from 2005 that the height of Mount Everest is 8,844.43 metres, or 29,017.2 feet”.
The statement was made in response to a report by The New York Times, which cited Nepal’s former top mountaineering official as saying that Beijing adjusted its figures last year.
The Chinese official, however, rebuffed the claim, saying the measurement taken in 2005 was “precise, scientific and legal”, and had since been used as a national standard.
“The figure … is based on the rock height of Mount Everest … and is important for researchers involved in mapping, geoscience, and environment climatology in China and around the world,” he said.
