Like many glorious moments in the history of New China, 60 years ago, 4:20 a.m. on May 25, 1960, was a moment worth remembering forever for all Chinese.
After a long period of difficulties and dangers, it took two months for The Chinese mountaineering team members Wang Fuzhou, Kampot and Qu Yinhua to conquer the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, from the north slope for the first time. At this moment, it shook China and shocked the world.
Questioning, striving, climbing, conquering... When we look back at the magnificent history of mountaineering in China today, even if we do not know much about the glorious historical sites, why do we not have a sense of déjà vu?
At this moment, the eyes of the world are once again focusing on Mount Everest. The 12 members of the Chinese Everest Elevation Survey Mountaineering Team are on standby at any time to launch a new impact on the top of the world and write history.
Chinese mountaineering is always linked to the national gas luck.
Flesh and blood set up into a "Chinese ladder"
"My father never talked about work at home. Growing up for me, mountaineering was his job, without much special concept. Wang Fuzhou's daughter Wang Yi told the Beijing Daily client reporter that it was not until 2005, when she came to the foot of Mount Everest as an interpreter for the Sino-Japanese women's joint mountaineering team, that she truly felt the greatness of her father's generation for the first time.
One day, the mountaineers were training, and Wang Yi followed them. "The altitude of Everest Base Camp is 5200 meters, we climbed up, people walked quite naturally, and suddenly I felt that this person was 'gone', there was a big heart left." She knew it was alpine reaction, and to be on the safe side, she quickly withdrew.
"This is only more than 5,000 meters, just imagine what more than 8,000 meters will look like?" The oxygen above may be only one-third of that on flat ground. At this moment, I realized how remarkable their group of people was. ”
The conditions at Everest Base Camp were perfected in 2005, even "luxurious". Not only beds, but also bathtubs, climbers can soak in the sun. But in 1960, when conditions were backward, every decision made by Chinese mountaineers could create an unprecedented record in human history.
"Staying overnight above 8,000 meters above sea level without a tent was definitely the first of them, and no one has done that until now." On the night of May 3, 1960, how did my father spend it on the "second step" of the "insurmountable" Everest? Shi Yan, the son of Shi Zhanchun, the leader of the Chinese mountaineering team, was still confiding in the media for the first time.
Take a breath of oxygen and move forward. The Members of the Chinese Mountaineering Team rest near 8100 meters, and the peak in the middle is Mount Everest.
At the end of the third march of the Chinese mountaineering team to climb Mount Everest for the first time, some members left a "assault camp" at an altitude of 8500 meters to establish the final charge, and Shi Zhanchun and Wang Fengtong continued to advance, looking for a route to attack the summit.
Not far away is the "second step". It is a steep rock wall, nearly 30 meters high, with an average gradient of 60 to 70 degrees, equivalent to a seven- or eight-story building. Twenty or thirty years ago, British climbers folded their swords here many times, and they failed.
When Shi Zhanchun and Wang Fengtong climbed to the top of the "second step", it was already night, and if they wanted to go any further, they had to climb a vertical, smooth cliff more than 3 meters high. It was pitch black all around, and it couldn't go up and down, so I had to spend the night here and wait for dawn.
"My father hadn't eaten for three or four days at this time, and he ate snow. Carrying weights for a long time, the physiological reaction is very strong, and oxygen is reluctant to use..." Shi Yan said, in order to survive, in order to thoroughly explore the road to the top after dawn, the two decided to dig a hole in a snow bag next to them.
The snow cave was just enough to hold two people. In the cold of minus 40 ° C, without taking a sip of oxygen from the oxygen cylinder, Shi Zhanchun and Wang Fengtong hugged each other tightly... On this night, they created a miracle in the history of human mountaineering.
20 days later, when the summit commando team composed of Wang Fuzhou, Kampot, Qu Yinhua and Liu Lianman launched a final charge along the route that Shi Zhanchun had explored, the last pass in front of them was the cliff more than 3 meters high at the top of the "second step".
The four men had been marching for 8 days in the fourth march, and their physical exertion was huge, and they had not been able to climb up after seven or eight attempts one by one. Liu Lianman, who was a firefighter, suddenly thought of a way to take a ladder.
In order to firmly step on Liu Lianman's shoulder and hit the ice pick into the rock wall, Qu Yinhua first took off his mountain boots and then his velvet socks. The severe cold at an altitude of 8700 meters made Qu Yinhua's toes and heels all frozen and cut off, and Liu Lianman also fell behind due to physical exhaustion, but after more than three hours of hard work, they really did it!
Climb to the top of the "second step" and the final road will be relatively smooth. In 1975, when the Chinese mountaineering team reached the summit of Mount Everest for the second time, a pair of metal ladders were erected here, which is the "Chinese Ladder". By 2008, the Chinese ladder had helped more than 1,300 climbers from all over the world realize their dream of conquering Mount Everest.
"The actual meaning of the Chinese ladder is far from such a few meters of ladders, but all these people who are willing to be ladders." The original Chinese ladder was the ladder of flesh and blood. Marshal He Long once said that China's mountaineering is advancing by the strength of the whole country. It was the national strength of the Chinese people who helped the three heroes conquer Mount Everest, and the glory of the mountaineering hero belongs to all Chinese mountaineers. This is the real Chinese ladder. Shi Yan said.
"Chinese've never climbed Everest, how can you say it's yours?"
The summit in 1960 took place in a complex international and domestic situation.
The climb was originally scheduled to be carried out by a joint team of China and the Soviet Union in the spring of 1959, but in March of that year, the upper reactionaries in Tibet openly launched a rebellion, and the joint climbing operation had to be postponed. After that, although the situation in Tibet stabilized, due to the gradual deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations at this time, the Soviet side quickly withdrew with the mountaineering equipment originally promised.
At that time, the country was in a difficult period of three years, but in order to fully complete the task of climbing Mount Everest, the state still approved 700,000 US dollars of funds and sent Shi Zhanchun to Switzerland to purchase professional mountaineering equipment. Shi Yan said: "At that time, 1 US dollar was equivalent to 43 US dollars now!" ”
At a mountaineering shop in Zurich, Switzerland, Shi Zhanchun happened to meet an Indian mountaineering team that also came to buy equipment. One of them was Tenzin Norgai, a Sherpasan who helped New Zealander Edmund Hillary from the South Slope in 1953 to complete the feat of making the first human ascent to Mount Everest. A few months later, China and India launched a climbing competition on the north and south sides of the Himalayas.
Mount Everest is located on the border between China and Nepal, and after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Nepal in 1955, there was a dispute over the ownership of Mount Everest. India, which has close ties with Nepal, has been clamoring, Chinese have never climbed Mount Everest, how can it be said that it is yours?
The complex environment gave the 1960 climb multiple meanings.
After China successfully reached the summit, the Indian mountaineering team gave up after encountering snow and wind on the southern slope. The following year, the China-Nepal Boundary Treaty was formally signed and the boundary issue was resolved.
Shi Yan told reporters that 15 years later, the Chinese mountaineering team launched another attack on Mount Everest, and one of the factors also came from the outside world. "When I reached the summit in 1960, it was still dark, and there were no records of images or the like. Western countries have always been skeptical of this. But my father's generation was like this, he didn't take this seriously at all, never responded, it would have lowered my status. If you don't believe me, then I'll go up again. ”
The history is strikingly similar. Time has passed, and when China has achieved significant results in the fight against the new crown virus with national strength, doubts and even denigration have once again come to the fore.
Wang Yi said: "I think today's doubts are somewhat consistent with the questions about China's Everest summit, and some people are always on top." At that time, my father just didn't care at all, some people didn't believe that it was their business, we just did us well. Because the real can't be fake, at any time it is misunderstood by others, or it is wronged, there is no need to argue. ”
The times create heroes, and Chinese there is no shortage of hero genes
As in the past, the current elevation measurements of Mount Everest are of equal significance.
Everest is best known for its elevation figure of 8848 meters, measured twice by India and China in 1954 and 1975. In 2005, China again organized scientific expeditions, climbing and surveys of Mount Everest, announcing that the rocky elevation of mount Everest was 8844.43 meters.
However, the height of the world's highest peak on the border between China and Nepal has long been different between China and Nepal, as well as international views. Nepal counts the snow cover at the summit and always agrees with the height of 8848 meters.
In May 2019, Nepalese surveyors reached the summit from the south slope and measured Everest again.
Since 1960, every everest climb and measurement has attracted national attention. Chinese seems to have a "Everest complex".
After the successful ascent to the summit, Premier Zhou Enlai received Shi Zhanchun.
"The highest point on the planet is in China, and this is something that Chinese very proud of." In the 1950s Chinese began to attack Everest, taking off the hat of 'sick man of East Asia' without foreign aid. In fact, like my dad was a student in the Geology School, at that time they didn't understand what mountaineering was, and there was never a basic group of people who did such a big thing, and the impact in 1960 was considerable. The continuation of this complex is actually the inheritance of the national spirit. Chinese there is no lack of hero genes, as long as the situation occurs, heroes will be produced, and today is the same. Wang Yi said.
For more than 60 years, how has the mountaineering industry linked to the national fortune affected Chinese society? Shi Yan concluded:
"China's mountaineering has made four major contributions to New China: first, to win glory for the country; second, to promote the development of scientific expeditions; third, to promote economic development; and fourth, mountaineering culture has played an important role in the development and construction of society." The spirit of climbing without height, indestructible without height has inspired generations of Chinese. A history of the development of mountaineering in China is the history of the development of the Chinese nation's struggle. ”
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