A Tibetan woman took the Olympic torch the last steps to the top of Everest on Thursday, realising “a dream of all Chinese people.” “Long live Tibet!” and “Long live Beijing!”, the climbers, all wearing red, shouted joyously into a TV camera after unfurling the Chinese national flag, the Olympic flag and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo. The ambitious project to take the torch to the Himalayan peak was cast as the highlight of the relay ahead of the Games, which start in exactly three months' time, and followed weeks of protests against Beijing's rule in Tibet. “We have realized a promise to the world and a dream of all the Chinese people,” base camp commander Li Zhixin told reporters after being mobbed by jubilant friends and colleagues. Exiled Tibetan officials and rights groups, however, said the Everest flame was in bad taste and not in keeping with the spirit of the Games. On Thursday morning, five climbers, two of them women, staged the torch relay just shy of the world's highest peak amid strong winds and minus-30-degree temperatures. “Beijing welcomes you!” and “tashi delek”, the climbers said – using a Tibetan greeting meaning “may everything be well” – after escorting the flame in a mini-relay to the 8,848-meter (29,030-foot) peak at the end of a six-hour climb. Beijing student Huang Chungui passed the flame to Tibetan woman Ciren Wangmu, who trudged the final steps unaided by oxygen to hold the torch aloft. That prompted jubilation among the reserve climbers, officials and a small team of journalists who had endured thin air at high altitude, sub-freezing temperatures and basic sanitation for nearly two weeks as they waited for the final ascent. The tent to which the live pictures were relayed from the summit was rent with cheers and tears, and several renditions of the Chinese national anthem echoed out across the Himalayas. The Everest climbing team, which included 22 Tibetans, eight Han Chinese and one man from the Tujia minority, had been on the mountain for more than a week preparing the route along the north-east ridge. The flame that crested Everest's peak was taken from the main Olympic torch when it arrived in Beijing in March. The Beijing organizers paused the main torch relay, scheduled to pass through the southern city of Shenzhen on Thursday, while the final push for the summit was taking place. The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid
