BEIJING, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- China Youth Daily has published a story questioning the necessity of carrying the Olympic torch to the world's highest peak, saying the action is largely symbolic.

    The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games on Tuesday said this year Beijing will rehearse for next year's Olympic torch relay to Mount Everest.

    The article questions the safety of the operation because of all the risks involved with scaling Mount Everest. By 2004, 166 climbers died trying to reach the top of the peak. In the first half of 2006 alone, 11 out of the 100 climbers who tried to climb the mountain died.

    The torch relay will be more difficult than a normal Mount Everest expedition because the flame will have to be carried to the top of the peak within a specific time frame to live television coverage.

    The project may also damage the environment on the mountain, which runs contrary to the organizing committee's claims that they are organizing the "Green Olympics".

    The relay team will have to carry a large amount of equipment to protect the flame from the elements and provide a live television broadcast.

    The article notes around 50 tons of plastic, glass and metal garbage has been dumped on the mountain from the time the first team scaled the peak on May 29, 1953 to the 1990s. Since 2000, seven tons of the garbage has been cleared out together with more than 400 oxygen tanks.

    It also quotes reports that say the rapid increase in the number of climbers have had a noticeable impact on the geography of the mountain and all the glaciers are now shrinking.

    Beijing promised the sacred Olympic flame would reach the peak of the world's highest mountain in its Olympic bid. The Olympic torch relay has never been held on the 8844.43-meter mountain before.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)