Scaling the height of success

A photo of the key protected area of Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West. "We failed twice before," said Tselo, the team's captain, at the recent launch ceremony of the book Zoujin Diqiu Zhidian in Beijing. It covers the formation of the Himalayan mountain range and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 65 million years ago, scientific investigations into its environmental change, 18 routes to climb it, how to measure its elevation, which has been changing constantly with crustal movements, and last but not least, environmental protection. The bulky, hard-cover book also contains 132 photos and 84 fine illustrations depicting the splendid views of Qomolangma as Asia's water tower and as the highest of nine peaks in the Himalaya Mountains, as well as its geological structure, ecosystem and atmosphere, among other items of interest. Based on the previous six big-scale scientific investigations in the Qomolangma region, especially the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research in 2018 and 2019, the book was an important attempt to combine scientific research and the popularization of science, says An Baosheng, a director on the book's editorial board, who's also deputy director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.